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20-year-old Cardiff University student James Tomlinson is set to make his championship debut for the visitors in place of Chris Tremlett, who will unfortunately miss the remainder of the season after fracturing a bone in his left foot. Adrian Aymes (knee) and Alan Mullally (shoulder) are hoping to be fit, though. The biggest problem facing Hampshire is their lack of runs. Only three players have made hundreds this term; one of whom, John Crawley, is not available. Everything continues to rest on the 38-year-old shoulders of Robin Smith (636 runs at an average of 37.41) while the likes of White (19.50), Kenway (18.30), Laney (14,00) and Prittipaul (4.00) continue to disappoint. Alan Mullally (46 wickets at 23.34 runs apiece) and Dimitri Mascarenhas have occasionally kept Hampshire's hopes alive with the ball and it is fair to say that Johnson and Udal have also done themselves credit. The absence of Tremlett, who is one of the brightest hopes around, is undoubtedly a blow, but Tomlinson has a reputation for being one of the quickest bowlers in second team cricket. Surrey have won their last six championship meetings with Hampshire, who have not triumphed at the Oval since 1982 when the visitors bowled the home side out for 101 to snatch a dramatic three-run victory. Only three batsmen made fifties in the game. The crucial one was Gordon Greenidge's 84 in the second innings. Hampshire's other West Indian, Malcolm Marshall, then applied the coup de grāce by taking seven for 38 in 20.1 overs. In the 1983 Surrey CCC Yearbook, Alan Butcher wrote: "With all due respect to Harry Brind (the groundsman at the time), this match was played on a minefield." It is hard to imagine that the pitches at the Oval were ever lively, but a number were re-laid in the late 1970s and for the next ten years, believe it or not, they were regarded as seamer-friendly.
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