2016 was a tough season for Surrey. After 5 years in Division 1 of the Women’s County Championship, including a second-placed finish in 2014, they were relegated to Division 2 having lost 7 of their 8 games.

But for long-standing county captain Cecily Scutt – now in her 9th season with the club, and with 91 wickets to her name, closing in on the big 100-wicket milestone – this wasn’t the time to cut and run:

“Relegation was hard because I felt a lot of responsibility personally; but I don’t think that is the time for a captain to leave, when their team gets relegated. We have a very young side, so if I were to leave at that point it would have left a lot of people on their own – Bryony Smith who is pushing to play for England; Alex Travers, Amy Gordon, and Rhianna Southby, who are all trying to develop their games – if I can take the pressure off them with the captaincy, then we’ll give them the best platform we can.”

Two particularly exciting prospects are 18-year-old Hannah Jones and Aylish Cranstone, who has moved to Surrey after 5 years at Devon, to try to push her career forwards after being selected in the Surrey Stars KSL squad last season:

“Hannah has been bowling really well and taking lots of wickets – she sticks to her line and length, and plays really positively with the bat – she is starting to enjoy it a lot I think, which is good to see; and Aylish adds a lot of energy – she is really busy – working it into the gaps and running really well between the wickets, so she is a real asset for us.”

Reflecting on life in Div 2, the word that Scutt uses is “different”:

“It is a different game, but it’s been alright actually – it has been different but it has been positive. Everyone has found out more about the way that they play and had the opportunity to score a lot of runs, so we’ve gained a lot of confidence which has been nice and a lot of the younger girls are doing really well, which is good to see.”

One player who made the most of her opportunities in Div 2 was England’s Nat Sciver, who smashed back-to-back not-out centuries against Hampshire and Staffs:

“It was good for Nat going into the World Cup off the back of a couple of hundreds – her success is so deserved – she has worked really, really hard, and it is amazing – we love it!”

Now with 2 rounds remaining of the 2017 County Championship, it could hardly be closer at the top of Div 2, with Somerset, Hampshire, Surrey and Devon all on 4 wins from 5, and Surrey currently sitting 3rd on bonus points in the battle for one of the two promotion spots back to Div 1, with fixtures against Somerset and Devon to come:

“The last 2 games will be quite tough – Somerset will be a hard game – they are playing pretty well. We played them in the T20 and they beat us, but it was close; so we’ll try and win and give ourselves the best chance we can to get promoted.”

“We want to be playing Div 1 cricket – that’s our aim. There is a difference between the divisions and while I think it has been good for us – we’ve had a chance to regroup and everyone has learned a lot – we would like to be playing Div 1 cricket!”