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county club’s full Committee decided, however, that only one ‘week’ should be played away from The Oval in any one season, and on 4 July 1946 it was resolved that “Guildford could count on a Cricket Week in each of the next three seasons”. In practice both venues hosted two Surrey first- class matches in 1946, though those at Kingston were not Championship matches. 30 Thereafter, Kingston never again hosted a Surrey fixture, though Guildford’s Cricket Week continues to this day. Since 1938 the county has played at least one first-class fixture, and latterly also at least one limited-overs match, at Woodbridge Road in every season, apart from 1964 to 1966 inclusive. 31 Surrey also ventured to Banstead for one first- class match in 1984 (against Cambridge University), and played one first- class match at Whitgift School in Croydon in each year from 2003 to 2011. Reigate’s 100-year absence from Surrey’s first-class fixture list is perhaps disappointing, but not especially surprising. Reigate/Redhill is no longer the largest town in the county outside the metropolitan area (in 2011 it was fourth behind Epsom/Ewell, Guildford and Woking), and although the Priory club has been highly successful in league cricket in recent years 32 , the town is not in an area where a first-class match can expect to draw a larger attendance, on a regular basis, than Guildford or Croydon. Perhaps the club missed a trick after the Second World War in not putting themselves forward for further county fixtures, as Guildford and Kingston did; but it was not really in a position to do so, as the ground had suffered bomb damage during the Blitz. With financial considerations inevitably uppermost in counties’ minds, its chances of hosting another Surrey first- class match have surely now disappeared for ever. The players after 1909 The Surrey side that played Lancashire at The Oval in June 1909 was relatively young, but it contained several of the great names of the game. Only three of the XI – Leveson Gower, Hayes and Lees – had made their first-class debuts before 1902, and all but three – Marshal, Davis and Lees – played on into the 1920s; indeed, three (Hobbs, Ducat and Leveson Gower) did not play their last first-class matches until the 1930s. Seven of the eleven - all but Marshal, Harrison, Davis and Rushby - were, or went on to be, Test cricketers. The Oval XI averaged over 360 first-class matches each over their entire careers, the range being from Davis with 113 to Hobbs with 834. The Lancashire match at The Oval was not the making 30 The two Kingston fixtures in 1946 were a non-Championship match against Hampshire and a match against the Combined Services. Thereafter Kingston hosted an end-of-season festival until 1953, with matches usually between ‘regional’ teams (North v South, or East v West) and between an England XI and a Commonwealth XI, but no Surrey county fixtures. As a curiosity, it may be noted that although Surrey played Hampshire twice at home in first-class matches in 1946, neither game was at The Oval – as well as the friendly at Kingston, the Championship match between them was played at Guildford. 31 Another curiosity: there were two first-class fixtures at Guildford in 1979, one being Surrey’s Championship match against Worcestershire, and the other being a match between Oxford University and the touring Sri Lankans. Apart from the University Match at Lord’s, this is one of only two first-class fixtures ever played by Oxford on a neutral ground, the other being a match against the South African Universities at Roehampton in 1967. 32 The First XI won the Surrey Premier Division title in 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2010, and the Second XI won their Divisional Championship in 2001, 2004 and 2005. In the latter year the club completed a clean sweep when the Third XI won their Divisional Championship too. 33 Surrey in 1909