Rain stops Surrey's bid to put record straight

Cricket C&G Trophy - Southern Section: It wouldn't be summer without spending a day watching the rain bounce off the covers in Belfast while huddling in a draughty press tent sipping hot tea and shivering in single digit temperatures.

The points were shared between Ireland and Surrey in the C&G Trophy yesterday as rain prevented a real game from taking place. And what a pity too because this game had a bit of edge to it with certain Irish players fighting for their places and Surrey determined not to allow a repeat of two years ago when Ireland beat them by five wickets in Castle Avenue. As damp squibs go, this one was decidedly sodden.

In the end, only 15 overs were bowled in the day with Surrey making 100 for 2 before the rain swept in from the south to ruin James Benning's fun with the pinch-hitting batsman taking a liking to Ireland's opening bowling. His unbeaten 61 came off just 41 balls and included seven fours and two sixes with John Mooney suffering the worst abuse. The North County medium-pacer bowled too straight to Benning and was smashed for 36 off two overs - much of it on the leg side - as Ireland conceded 70 off the first seven overs.

But Surrey have a habit of getting off to flying starts only to be reeled in and when they came off for rain, Ireland had begun that progress, restricting them to just 30 off the next seven. Andre Botha did well in trying circumstances going for just 19 off his five overs.

Under pressure to retain his place in the side, David Langford-Smith bowled with good pace, snaffling the wicket of Mark Butcher in the process, and he did his prospects no harm in conceding just over three runs an over. Earlier Trent Johnston took the wicket of Jonathan Batty with the third ball of the day before Benning restored order.

But really this game will have given national coach Adrian Birrell nothing extra as he prepares his team for next week's four-day InterContinental Cup match against Namibia in Clontarf, starting on Wednesday.

This non-result pretty much ends Surrey's prospects in the competition and captain Butcher was disappointed afterwards that the game could not be concluded.

"It's a pity but what can you do?" said the former England Test batsman. "We were very conscious of the fact that Ireland beat us two years ago and the players who were involved in that were very keen to put things to rights. Now we'll never know," he said.