THEY may have had the big names of Graeme Smith, Ricky Ponting and Hashim Amla play for them this season, but after one County Championship win all campaign, it came as no surprise when Surrey were relegated today.
The Oval club will be plying their trade in Division Two next season after a dismal campaign that saw them wait until August 29 for their first County Championship win, beating Derbyshire by four wickets.
After poor early season form, which saw team manager Chris Adams sacked, Surrey had a great Friends Life t20 campaign, reaching the final before losing to Northamptonshire. However, the team failed to take their form in the 20-over game into the second half of the four-day season.
Going into the last three games of the County Championship, Surrey's executive director Alec Stewart believed his team needed two wins from the remaining games; Somerset, Warwickshire and Yorkshire.
However, after Surrey lost by seven wickets to fellow strugglers Somerset and then, despite a much improved batting performance, lost to Warwickshire by six wickets in the game that concluded today, their relegation was sealed.
Starting on Tuesday, Surrey face Yorkshire at the Oval in their final Division One game but with the South London-based team rock bottom of the league, with one win, eight draws and six losses to their name, the result is irrelevant.
However, it was not all bad news for Surrey fans today as the club announced England bowler Chris Tremlett had signed a new one-year contract extension while Gareth Batty has signed a new two-year extension.
The club also announced that they had released veteran all-rounder Zander De Bruyn with immediate effect.
