FOR Surrey this was a routine day at the office; for the students heavy defeat, but a performance in the field of some note added to their near misses against Somerset and Hampshire.

The principal performers yesterday could have been excused if their minds were elsewhere. Alec Stewart and Adam Hollioake are expected to be named today as England's Test and one-day captains respectively while Ben Hollioake had food for thought having emerged unscathed after an article in GQ magazine implied he smoked cannabis on the England A tour. While they pondered their good fortune, British Universities enjoyed the opening on a famous stage before falling away after the interval.

None more so than Lancashire's Mark Chilton, whose innocuous-looking medium pace earned him another Gold Award to add to last season's against Sussex.

The highlight, though, came when Tobin Bailey pulled off a brilliant stumping from a leg-side wide by medium-pacer Ben Hutton. Unfortunately for the Universities, it was downhill from there.