IT HAS been a peculiar season for Surrey. They began the campaign refreshed by a new captain and coach, but Jon Batty and Steve Rixon endured a bruising baptism, and by the start of this month the future looked bleak.

August opened with a championship defeat at Northampton, relegation was on the cards and days later they handed over the Twenty20 Cup to Leicestershire, of all sides, a county the very opposite in nature of the big-name brashness readily associated with the men from the capital.

Yet just three weeks on from their nadir at Northampton, they have a couple of championship wins under their belts and have now edged ahead of Kent in the contest for the runners-up spot in the First Division.

The poor weather earlier in the week at Canterbury and some doughty resistance by Kent’s tail denied Surrey a third straight win but nevertheless, with a couple of games to go, black thoughts of relegation can be banished.

On their day, they can still look the team to beat, with a seam attack that’s certainly the envy of many, and much of that comes down to the return of Martin Bicknell. The 35-year-old missed six weeks before returning against Lancashire last week and at once everything seemed to click into place. The load placed on James Ormond and Azhar Mahmood was lightened and they have revelled in the change.

Azhar ran through Kent’s first innings and Ormond, after Surrey had secured maximum batting points and a lead of 176, rumbled in to spark the visitors’ hopes of forcing an unlikely win. With his first ball he had Ed Smith caught at slip and soon added Alex Loudon and Michael Bevan to leave Kent 34 for three.

Tim Murtagh took the important wicket of David Fulton and Bicknell claimed his first by bowling Niall O’Brien, before Azhar’s burst of three wickets reduced Kent to 142 for eight. But Matthew Dennington and Ian Butler were not to be moved as Surrey’s attack ran out of steam at the last.