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13 and 1909 seasons 6 – though sadly not for 1905, so we have no definitive record as to why Reigate was chosen in that year as Surrey’s first-ever out-ground. 7 In fact, neither the Match Committee nor the full Committee met between 15 October 1908, when the decision was taken to play the Oxford match away from The Oval, and the County Secretaries’ meeting on 8 December, when the 1909 fixture list was agreed with the match allocated to Reigate. So we must assume that Surrey’s decision to choose Reigate was taken outside the normal Committee processes – though even then it is surprising that the decision was not minuted somewhere, even if only to record that such a decision had been properly taken. So once again, we are left to speculate as to why Reigate got the nod. The following are possible factors in the decision: •When looking for out-grounds, Surrey CCC may have wanted to make a deliberate choice to use grounds outside metropolitan Surrey, in order to spread the game more widely through the county rather than looking to ‘metropolitan’ venues such as Croydon, Battersea, Richmond, Mitcham or even Kingston, all of which were by now part of or contiguous with London’s built-up area, or were fast becoming so. •Although nowadays we may think of Reigate as ‘just another dormitory town’ in Surrey, in the first decade of the 20th century it, with the adjoining town of Redhill, was comfortably the largest town in non- metropolitan Surrey. Thus holding the fixture at Reigate would make it accessible to the greatest number of people, with consequential benefits in terms of receipts as well as in more general proselytising. •Reigate had a cricketing pedigree. Major matches in Reigate are reported as early as 1832, although big-name players from Reigate were known from half a century earlier. The Reigate Priory club was founded on its present site west of Bell Street in the mid-19th century - 1852 is the generally-accepted date, though club records are slightly ambiguous on the point. 8 •Reigate was also the home town of Surrey star W.W. (Walter) Read, who was able to ensure that it retained a high cricketing profile. In 1893, 1894 and 1895 he arranged matches at the Priory club’s ground in which his own XI opposed an XI brought together by W.G.Grace. Among those taking part in these matches were players of the quality of Bobby Abel, J.J.Ferris, Tom Hayward, J.T.Hearne, George Lohmann, Archie MacLaren, Billy Murdoch, Bobby Peel, Ranji, and Tom Richardson - and of course Read and W.G. themselves. •In the last quarter of the 19th century, Reigate Priory CC had been making occasional noises in the hope of securing a full county fixture on 6 Minutes of Match Committee meetings on 20 December 1905, 21 February 1907, and 3 and 26 November 1908. 7 As noted earlier, all of Surrey’s home First Eleven matches from 1854, and the first 90 home Second Eleven matches between July 1889 and August 1904, were played at The Oval. There is nothing in the Surrey minutes, or the relevant Yearbooks, that gives any background to the ground-breaking decision to play some Second XI matches away from The Oval in 1905. 8 One document seen at the club by the author suggests an alternative date of 1862. Surrey in 1909