ADAM HOLLIOAKE raised both arms to the crowd in a fighter’s salute when he took the field in his last home match for Surrey yesterday but he was to be outpunched by a fellow pugilist as Lancashire kept alive their hopes of challenging Glamorgan for the totesport League first division title.

Hollioake, who takes his nickname of “Smokey” from Smokin’ Joe Frazier, the former world heavyweight champion, had been at his combative best when he and Alex Tudor were putting on 128 in 21 overs to lift Surrey from 72 for six to 235 for eight.

He never looked like landing a knockout blow, though, as Iain Sutcliffe, a former British Universities light-middleweight champion in his own right, joined Mark Chilton in a record-breaking opening partnership of 223 that led Lancashire to victory with nearly six overs to spare. Chilton made 115, his highest one-day score, off 115 balls with 19 fours, Sutcliffe finished unbeaten on 102 off 106 balls with 17 fours and between them they surpassed Lancashire’s previous best opening stand in the league of 192, set by Michael Atherton and Sourav Ganguly in 2000.

It was a hammer blow to Surrey, who thought that they had given themselves a chance of climbing out of the bottom three but found that they could not cope with the batting of Chilton and Sutcliffe in the absence of Martin Bicknell, Jimmy Ormond and Azhar Mahmood, who were all rested. They were also without Mark Butcher, who was expected to play after recovering from his thigh injury but has now hurt his calf, and they collapsed alarmingly after a typical opening salvo from Alistair Brown which brought him a six and three fours in Dominic Cork’s second over.

Cork had his revenge, however, bowling Brown in his next over and going on to make it three wickets in 12 balls by bowling James Benning and, more importantly, claiming Mark Ramprakash leg-before for a duck. Scott Newman then fell leg-before to Sajid Mahmood, Rikki Clarke drove Glen Chapple tamely to cover and Jonathan Batty was run out by Sutcliffe before Hollioake, who retires at the end of the season, and Tudor, playing only his fourth league match of the summer, launched their counter-attack.

Tudor peppered the hospitality marquees with three sixes and five fours in his 56 off 70 balls until he was run out by Mahmood. Hollioake hit the ball even farther, landing two sixes on the grassy bank beside the pavilion and hitting six fours besides, to reach 66 off 72 balls before he pulled Chapple to mid-wicket.

Tim Murtagh added some meaty blows to guide Surrey to a respectable total. Or so they thought until Chilton and Sutcliffe took Lancashire ahead of the required rate and kept going until the match was as good as won.