Tremlett: the 'Night Watchtower'

A very brief match report: Day One at the Oval, Surrey v Gloucestershire

Well, not only did the man everyone's been talking about get a game but, at the risk of tempting fate, Chris Tremlett didn’t break in two either! Four wickets for Surrey on day one from the man who makes Andre Nel look like Ronnie Corbett! I hope he doesn’t try to hug Ramps though. As one of my fellow Rampants said, “man smothered to death by belly button” doesn’t make for attractive headlines...

Tremlett’s magnificent start for Surrey probably stole the headlines for what turned out to be a pretty decent performance by the entire team. Gloucestershire were very quickly caught on the hop, losing early wickets, a fact made known to me at work via our Rampant relay station (well, okay. It was Liz at the Oval armed with her mobile). Even although I was happy to see the wickets tumbling I had mixed feelings on learning that Jon Batty had gone early. There’s no doubt that Chris Adams has picked a magnificent player in Steven Davies, but the Hedgepig was a favourite amongst the Rampants and we all want him to do well for his new club.

It looks like a typical batting track at the Oval, which is why the bowling – underpinned by Tremlett – looked so good today. Gloucestershire haven’t really fired in their games so far this year although they are a win to the good, but in the end the last batting partnership refused to budge and remained, as Blackadder himself might have put it, “stickier than two really sticky things on a stick”. But for this last limpet-like effort Surrey might have bowled them out for under 200...

Towards the end of the day Surrey had lost Gareth Batty and at close they posted 56-1, which is a nice little return with one eye on the Gloucestershire total. Man of the moment Tremlett came in as night watchman or, given his size, night watchtower . I have to agree with a point made on the commentary: it’s amusing to see the batsmen proper mother-henning the NW when it’s supposed to be the other way around. Harinath blithely just got on with getting himself on strike as much as possible, maybe with a view to preserving Tremlett’s back!

I’ve lost count of the number of times that a NW has been sent in to keep Ramps company, and he’s just ignored him and played his own game! I’m beginning to wonder if real batsmen think 'night watchman' is a dirty word...