Batty finding his feet

"We don't have Bank Holidays," asserted Jon Batty in mock indignation after spending four hours training. "We're entertainers." Fresh from duffing up Kent for a belated first Championship victory, the skipper could afford to be whimsical, especially since he had become only the second stumper ever to capture a century and eight catches in an innings in the same match.

"My most hard-fought win in eight years at Surrey. Since losing to Ireland I'd felt we were improving with every match. Over that first month we simply weren't playing well for long enough periods," he says, not mentioning the injuries to Saqlain Mushtaq and Ian Salisbury. "I can't say enough for the way the seamers picked up the slack. The discipline and control against Kent were incredible," Batty added.

Batty soon dropped down the order, a tacit if perhaps merely temporary acceptance that leading, keeping and opening was a job too far. "The most difficult part," he says, "has been finding my feet as captain. I've been pretty happy with my decision-making but probably didn't quite realise the pressures. The majority of expectations come from inside the dressing room."

"I can't see anyone doing it again." So says Batty of Martin Bicknell's 1,000th first-class wicket, seized against Kent. "We worked it out - that equates to 70 a year for 14 years." Bickers, he noted, was "very moved for such a cool bloke: he said he was thinking about it every ball."

Moment of the month Finding the members' fixture list included a C&G third-round tie against Northants.