Background
He was born at Herne Hill in south London, educated at Emanuel School, and died at Glossop in Derbyshire.
He was born at Herne Hill in south London, educated at Emanuel School, and died at Glossop in Derbyshire.
Surridge was arguably the most successful cricket captain ever in the first-class game in England. Through relentlessly aggressive tactics, he turned an underperforming Surrey team into a record-breaking success in the County Championship of the 1950s. Surridge came from a famous family of cricket bat makers.
He was only a moderate cricketer: a lower order batsman whose principal talent was belligerence and a right-arm fast-medium bowler who was, by the standards of his time, somewhat expensive.
He was 30 before he played first-class cricket, and was included in the Surrey side mainly when one of the team"s England stars was playing Test cricket, which was fairly frequently. Surrey"s team in the early 1950s was overloaded with bowling talent.
Alec Bedser was the main strike bowler for England for 10 seasons after the Second World War. Jim Laker was reckoned by most to be the best off spin bowler in England.
Tony Lock was an aggressive slow left-arm bowler.
And Peter Loader, though eclipsed in Test terms by Brian Statham and Fred Trueman, was a fast bowler of menace. Batting resources were thinner, but in Peter May Surrey had the most correct and fluent right-hand batsman to have emerged since the war. Yet until Surridge became captain, a shared Championship in 1950 (with Lancashire) was the only success Surrey had had since before the First World War.
Surridge"s methods were simple.
He himself was a fearless fielder close to the wicket, and others followed his example. His tactics were sometimes ruthless.
The weather forecast had not been good, he said. Even when Surrey"s contingent of England cricketers was away on Test duty, Surridge conjured outstanding performances from their replacements.
In retirement after 1956, he served on Surrey committees and ran his bat-making business, and was visiting his factory when he collapsed and died, aged 74.