[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

Day Two

Morning: A beautiful May day, and with a good deal of patience the Pears bowlers finally got their reward. Joe Leach led the way again, regaining a little of last summer's form as he dismissed both Ollie Pope and Sam Curran in successive overs. Charlie Morris, who made his long-awaited return last weekend, was the one to dismiss Clarke and Rory Burns seven short of his double-century.

Afternoon: Worcestershire mopped up the Surrey tail with debutant Ben Twohig grabbing his maiden first-class wicket; the home side were 434 all out, undoubtedly a competitive total but less than it could have been. On a good batting surface, Worcs began their reply well, and went into tea without loss.

Evening: The unlucky Dolly went LBW to Rikki Clarke early in the session, making a decent 23, but the rest of the day belonged to Tom Fell and the imperious Daryl Mitchell, who shrugged off the top-order travails of recent weeks to see the visitors through to stumps on 135-1, trailing by 299. More of the same tomorrow, see ourselves safely past the follow-on, and there should at last be a stop to the rot for Worcestershire in 2018.