Surrey County Cricket Club in 2005

Surrey County Cricket Club in 2005 are playing their cricket in the First Division of the County Championship and the Second Division of the totesport League. The 2004 season was a disappointment for Surrey under the captaincy of Jonathan Batty, who was replaced by Mark Butcher for 2005. However, Butcher was out for most of the season due to an injury to his left wrist, leaving Mark Ramprakash as interim captain - one of the few, maybe the only, man to captain both Surrey and their arch-rivals Middlesex.

Surrey are 10-3 second favourites for the County Championship - and started their season with a damp draw against neighbours Sussex. In the totesport League, they lost their first game in a highscoring match at the Oval against Yorkshire, which showed up how long the Surrey tail is.

After these games, they then took on the students of Bradford/Leeds UCCE and to their surprise, and the students' credit, Surrey lost by 4 wickets. More concerning though were the injuries picked up by Martin Bicknell, Ian Salisbury and Rikki Clarke, which meant none of these three bowled in the final innings. It got no better for Surrey the following Sunday, when they lost heavily to Durham.

Surrey then went to Cardiff to play Glamorgan. The game was won by a combination of Jimmy Ormond, who made a career-best 7 for 63, and Mark Ramprakash who scored a century on the way to notching up his 25,000th first class run. They didn't play then until the May Day Bank Holiday, when they were humbled away to Somerset.

On 4 May they were run hard by Staffordshire in the C&G Trophy, who at times threatened to repeat Ireland's humbling of Surrey in 2004, but ultimately the Lions prevailed. They then lost heavily to Nottinghamshire, who went to the top of the Division One table as a result, before beating Divisional whipping boys, Glamorgan convincingly at the Oval.

They were then whipped themselves in the Second Division of the National League, as Leicestershire County Cricket Club beat them by 60 runs. On 17 May they beat defending champions Gloucestershire in the Second Round of the C&G Trophy, and three days later won their first totesport League match of the year against Scotland. They then hung on for a draw in the Championship against Kent. It was during this match that it was announced that Surrey were to lose 8 points because of ball-tampering in the match against Nottinghamshire. This left them fifth in Division One at the end of May.

The first game in June was a 4-day draw with Warwickshire at Whitgift School, before losing by 49 runs to the same team on the same ground the next day. They then went on to Lord's where they took 12 points in a high-scoring draw against Middlesex, before thumping one of the favourites, Hampshire, by an innings and 55 runs.

Surrey started their Twenty20 campaign with two victories, over Kent and Middlesex, and despite a loss against Hampshire they looked on course for more Twenty20 success. Indeed, they won their next three games, and despite two losses on the end of the campaign to Essex in a 5-over game and Sussex, they finished top of the South Division. In the County Championship, they squandered a 325-run first innings lead against Gloucestershire, failing to bowl them out in 157 overs of the second innings and having to settle with a draw, before getting only their second win of the National League season - a three-run squeeze against Yorkshire. However, they were knocked out of the C&G Trophy by Hampshire shortly afterwards, before enduring a big loss to Derbyshire in the National League. In the quarter-final of the Twenty20 Cup, shortened by rain, their game with Warwickshire was tied on the Duckworth–Lewis method so the captains agreed to have a bowl-off, which Surrey won 4-3, thus progressing to the semi-final.

Their Championship cricket was less impressive, as they lost sight of the leaders after a four-wicket defeat to Kent, where they conceded 232 in 35 overs to lose the match, and their one-day form was as woeful as usual, as they conceded 219 runs in 22 overs to Sussex in a shortened Sunday League game at Guildford, which they lost by 48 runs. A draw - their sixth of the Championship season - with Nottinghamshire followed, to leave them fourth in the table, twenty points adrift of the leaders Nottinghamshire. The Twenty20 Cup semi-finals and final was hosted at Surrey's home ground The Oval, but the home fans were disappointed in the team as Surrey went out in the semi-finals to Lancashire Lightning.

August began with a five-wicket Championship loss to Sussex, before winning two successive National League games, against Kent and Leicestershire. A virtual second XI, nevertheless including Mark Butcher and Saqlain Mushtaq, drew with Bangladesh A. The fourth day of their Championship match with Gloucestershire was rained off, meaning that Surrey had to endure their seventh draw of the season, and were still in the relegation zone. Even in one-day cricket, rain haunted them, as the National League clash with Kent was rained off, and they suffered their eighth Championship draw of the season against Hampshire, as relegation became an all the more imminent threat. Two matches in the National League followed before the end of August, which both ended in losses, to Somerset and Sussex.

September, however, began well for Surrey, as they recorded an eight-wicket League victory over Derbyshire. Their winning ways didn't last long, however, as they drew with Warwickshire in the Championship before losing in the National League, and on the second day of their "relegation play-off" with Middlesex Surrey were confined to relegation in the Championship, as they has conceded too many bonus points. Despite going on to win by an innings and 39 runs, and also recording a victory Scottish Saltires in the National League, the season ended on a glum note for Surrey.