Surrey close to rare defeat

County Championship D1, Old Trafford, day three: Surrey 337 & 137-8; Lancashire 341

Full scorecard

A combination of Gary Keedy's slow left-arm spin and some gloomy weather in the north-west made Surrey's hopes of winning this match hanging by a thread.

It might have been much worse for the champions too, had Ali Brown (61) not survived on three even though he was initially given out caught behind by umpire Barrie Leadbeater.

Brown stood his ground, indicating a vicious lifter from Martin had hit his helmet rather than his bat - and Leadbeater amended his decision even as Lancashire were celebrating a success which would have reduced Surrey to 26-4.

As it was, Keedy took 4-56 in 14 overs, bowling the dangerous Brown just before the umpires came off for bad light some time before tea.

Earlier, Peter Martin had dismissed Jon Batty for a duck and Ian Ward for just three .

When Glenn Chapple trapped Rikki Clarke lbw the score was 23-3 and it needed a stand of 70 between Brown and Graham Thorpe (38) to keep the visitors' noses above water.

But John Wood had Thorpe caught behind to precipitate the collapse engineered by Keedy and Lancashire will be hoping for better weather on Friday to consign Surrey to their first defeat of the season.

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Lancashire: I J Sutcliffe, M R Currie, S G Law, C L Hooper M J Chilton, G Chapple, W K Hegg (Capt, Wkt), C P Schofield, P J Martin, J Wood, G Keedy.

Surrey: I J Ward, J N Batty (Wkt), A D Brown, G P Thorpe, R Clarke, Saqlain Mushtaq, A J Hollioake (Capt), Azhar Mahmood I D K Salisbury, J Ormond, T J Murtagh.