Pardoe defies Surrey

Having spent a day last month in London SE11 dodging between The Oval and The Tate Gallery and eventually being frustrated by heavy showers, I returned home without seeing a ball bowled in the match between Surrey and Worcestershire. The opportunity to see the reverse fixture presented itself this week but not without some awkward decisions having to be made by both the Worcestershire authorities and this blogger. To nobody's surprise New Road found itself under water last weekend and the game was switched to Kidderminster (change at Droitwich Spa) then, as the waters receded, back to Worcester (don't change at Droitwich Spa), and so it was not until Friday that I made the decision to travel to New Road for the first time since 1996. My last visit had coincided with a heatwave and I was refused admission to the pavilion when my interpretation of 'smart casual' differed from the steward's ('too far from smart and too close to casual, sir') and I remember well, with Durham having reduced Worcestershire to 11 for 4, John Morris dropping Graeme Hick,in front of the pavilion now replaced by one named after him, (Hick not Morris). Hick went onto make 150 and Durham squandered a rare opportunity for a victory. The new pavilion seems alright until you remember what it replaced.
 On Friday afternoon I checked that the forecast for yesterday was good enough to merit the early start needed and booked my train tickets only to discover that I had neglected to follow events at New Road where Surrey had been bowled out for 113 and in their second innings were 11 for 2. The prospect that Surrey might be bowled out twice in a day would not normally cause me much distress but on this occasion I was relieved when Messrs Pieterson,Hamilton-Brown and Maynard rescued the situation so that by close of play on Friday Surrey led by 44 with six wickets in hand thus setting up an interesting fourth day.
York station was busier than usual at 7:30 on Saturday morning with York City fans heading for Wembley.My trains  were on time and remembering not to change at Droitwich Spa, I was in Worcester in plenty of time for the start of play. A more friendly welcome than at Northampton last week but again no age concessions on the gate, £15 for all adults.
No heatwave this time but almost perfect May weather made ideal watching conditions for a decent sized fourth day crowd. From the outset Surrey made their intentions very clear with Maynard and Hamilton- Brown batting so aggressively that by the time the cathedral clock struck noon 90 runs had been scored. The rate slowed a little but shortly after lunch Maynard passed his highest first class score at close to a run a ball and soon Surrey declared with a lead of 259  leaving The Pears a not unreasonable target in 52 overs.
Surrey's attack made early inroads and the tea score of 49 for 3 ruled out any hope of  a home victory. The Australian Klinger was out caught sub: I had hoped he might be lbw which would have given me the opportunity to mention Klinger and Hawkeye in the same sentence, not sure about Hotlips, New Road isn't that sort of place. At 100 for 7 the game looked to be Surrey's but Stourbridge born Pardoe resisted for over one hundred deliveries to be not out 38 and with help from Lucas and Jones(another Stourbridge man) the game was declared a draw with one ball of the ultimate over left with Worcestershire taking eight points to Surrey's six and those who stayed to the end yesterday would feel they had seen an excellent day's entertainment.
I had to leave at tea but on the way home twitter enabled me to follow Yorkshire's progress in their remarkable run chase at Bristol and this morning's table sees them joint top with Derbyshire, a very satisfactory state of affairs before Wednesday's Headingley date with Hampshire.Up at The Riverside Durham managed to get past 200 and salvage a draw with just one wicket in hand. The most worrying feature of their poor early season form is that not one of their top six has yet to pass fifty. Be honest, you didn't expect to learnt that today, did you?