Tough times for Butcher

Alan Butcher's tenure as the Surrey manager continues to hang in the balance with last weekend's 10-wicket defeat to Durham in the LV County Championship.

The Brown Caps have now lost three out of their past four in the championship.

To make matters worse their Pro40 League campaign opened with an 11-run defeat at the hands of Darren Gough's Yorkshire Carnegie.

Butcher said: “I'm only disappointed that we can't win a game. I'm certainly happy with the effort. It's not as though I'm having to work hard to get a response and to get people to put the effort in.

“Everyone's held their hands up and said: 'Well the thing is we haven't contributed as individuals. We haven't scored enough runs and we haven't caught catches'.

“It's easy for people to look from the outside and look for other reasons, but the players are saying it's down to them. The guys are working, practising and talking about it, but you've got to do it.

“I'm not ducking my responsibility here, because I'm going to be held to account for the results, but you know, as I knew when I was a player that when I walked over that line there was nothing Micky Stewart could do for me. I had to produce the goods or lose my place.”

So, Guildford continues to be a less than happy hunting ground for Surrey. They have not won a four-day match at Woodbridge Road since 2002 and in the one-day formats the Brown Caps have now lost three out of their past four there.

The championship match against Durham ebbed and flowed, but from lunch-time on day two Surrey's injury-hit outfit struggled to live with the new leaders of Division One.

Will Smith and Phil Mustard's sixth wicket partnership of 134 left the Brown Caps broken and in both innings the home side saw their tail blown away by Stephen Harmison and the rest of the Durham attack.

Butcher said: “At the moment we're missing five of our top players and life is difficult. It would be difficult for any side to cope with.

“Our lack of depth in the batting showed in the first innings. We were 199 for four and set up for a reasonable total but ended up getting 220.”

As for Smith's unbeaten 201, Butcher added: “I'd have to say that his innings was the best innings I've seen from a young English player this year. I thought he played exceptionally well.

“I was perfectly happy with the way we bowled. I thought we bowled well without much luck. We went past the bat enough times to suggest we could get wickets, but it wasn't to be.

“So, on the second day to have only got two wickets all day I thought we deserved a lot more than that. Then, with Smith having played so well we dropped him. He'd got 160 by then, but if we'd got into their tail a bit sooner they may not have got as many and we'd have been in a good position.

“But batting second we were 266 for four, then Jonathan Batty misjudges a single, gets run out and again they're into our inexperienced tailenders. In championship cricket it's been like that the whole time.

“We've got ourselves into decent positions, but either because of making a poor decision or just playing poorly for a short period of time we've handed over the initiative.

“The players know. They're all disappointed, but I think from their point of view it would be worse if they knew they were being completely outplayed all the time. They know that they're not. Getting the best side on the field would also make a difference.”

With Matt Nicholson's knee injury likely to keep him out of action for some time, Butcher is assessing his options in terms of the overseas slot.

He said: “From a batting point of view we've missed Butch (Mark Butcher) and he's still someway off.

“We may have to think about bolstering that side of it because I still genuinely believe that if we'd got the runs we should have done in most of the matches we've played a) we wouldn't have lost them and b) we'd have given ourselves a good chance of winning them.

“So, I've been looking at batsmen who might be willing to come. I've got people looking at all four corners of the globe, but now there's the added complication that Indians are not being allowed to come to clubs with ICL connections.”

Butcher also confirmed that the hope was to get a new overseas player in time for Surrey's next the championship match, against Yorkshire at Headingley, which starts on July 30.