Going into today’s Royal London One Day Cup opener against Yorkshire at Scarborough, Surrey have a 5-1 One Day record at the ground.
Featuring some of the great modern names in Surrey and Yorkshire history, let’s take a quick look back on Surrey’s glorious history against one of the Club’s fiercest rivals at their picturesque seaside out ground.
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August 9th 1970 – Surrey win by 96 runs
A forty over clash against a Yorkshire team including Geoff Boycott and Chris Old – and under the captaincy of the great Brian Close – was a triumph for the seam pair of Geoff Arnold and Robin Jackman.
After being asked to bat first, Surrey were indebted to Younis Ahmed (58) and Intikhab Alam (41), with Roger Knight adding 36 as they posted just 187 from their 39.3 overs, with Tony Nicholson taking 4/39.
However, Arnold (4/13) and Jackman (2/21) came flying out of the blocks, reducing Yorkshire to 30/6 – Boycott being removed for a duck by Arnold.
Richard Hutton, son of the great Len, managed 44 but was only able to drag his side to 91 all out, giving Surrey a big win.
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29th June 1975 – Yorkshire win by six wickets
Five years later, another forty over game saw Surrey asked to bat first again, this time by Boycott who had taken over as Yorkshire captain.
Skipper John Edrich scored 61 with New Zealander Geoff Howarth (39) and Intikhab Alam (15) the only other Surrey batsmen to make double figures as the Club were bowled out for 158 from the final ball of the innings.
In a reverse of the previous game, Yorkshire knocked the total off with little alarm, Chris Old (38) and John Hampshire (33) top scoring as the home side got revenge with 7.3 overs remaining.
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5th July 1981 – Surrey win by 15 runs
Another forty over game saw Surrey batting first again – after another insertion from the home side.
It was a very different affair with the bat though, with Grahame Clinton carrying his bat through the innings to hit his maiden One Day century of 105* – adding 116 with Monte Lynch (70) and an unbroken 63 with Intikhab (33*) as Surrey set Yorkshire 244 to win.
The primary contribution to Yorkshire’s chase came from the late, great David Bairstow (78) but other than another handy innings from John Hampshire (38) and a contribution from his fellow opener Bill Athey (24), Yorkshire lost wickets frequently and came up 15 runs short.
Surrey bowlers were led by the abstemious Pat Pocock (3/22) with David Thomas (2/41) also in the wickets.
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23rd August 1992 – Surrey win on faster scoring rate
A rain affected affair saw Yorkshire dismissed from 39.3 overs, setting Surrey a very gettable 205 to win.
Craig White (63) was the mainstay of the Yorkshire total, with Ashley Metcalfe (43) providing his primary support against the Surrey attack, led by Joey Benjamin (3/32) and Martin Bicknell (2/36).
A trademark punishing century from Ali Brown (105*), dominated Surrey’s reply – which ended on 141/1 after 20 overs, well ahead of the required rate and delivering the win via fastest scoring rate.
The only wicket to fall in the Surrey chase was Darren Bicknell, bowled for 13 by Jeremy Batty, the brother of a certain Gareth, who would go onto make quite the impression for Surrey in years to come!
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11th September 1994 – Surrey win by 205 runs
Surrey returned for a late summer game two years later and dominated to the extent the game remains the Club’s third largest One Day victory ever.
After being asked to bat first, Ali Brown (133) once again took a liking to his surroundings, smashing a Yorkshire attack featuring Test bowlers Darren Gough, Paul Grayson and Gavin Hamilton, to all parts of North Marine Road.
If that wasn’t enough, Graham Thorpe (102*) also reached three figures and a young Adam Hollioake smashed a quick fire 59 as Surrey posted a seismic 375/4 from their 40 overs.
Needing to score at nearly ten an over just to stay with the rate, Yorkshire lost regular wickets as they were unpicked by left arm seamer Mark Kenlock (4/30) and the accuracy of Martin Bicknell (4/50) as the home side slumped to 170 all out.
Surrey’s margin of victory remained a Club record for thirteen years, requiring the World Record 496/4 (from fifty overs) against Gloucestershire to supersede it.
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26th August 2007 – Surrey win by five wickets
If the margin of victory is less headline grabbing, Surrey’s most recent One Day win in Scarborough was no less dominant.
After choosing to bat first, a star studded Yorkshire line up, featuring the likes of Jacques Rudolph, Craig White, Inzamam-ul-Haq (on his Yorkshire One Day debut), Tim Bresnan, Matthew Hoggard and Darren Gough found themselves 58/8 with Mohammad Akram (3/35), a young Chris Jordan (3/28) and Matt Nicholson (2/23) all doing early damage.
A late partnership between David Wainwright (26) and Gough (49) lifted Yorkshire to 145 all out but with 33 balls left unused, it was clear that Surrey were favourites.
This proved to be the case as an efficient chase was conducted with James Benning (37), Scott Newman (30) and captain Mark Butcher (34) all marshalling matters very effectively as the target was chased down with 10.5 overs remaining.
