WORCESTERSHIRE old boys Steve Davies and Gareth Batty rubbed salt in their former team-mates’ wounds during a tough first day at Surrey.
The duo flew south in the winter and were instrumental in helping Surrey charge to a healthy 415-6 in LV= County Championship Division Two.
Davies joined skipper Rory Hamilton-Brown in a fourth-wicket partnership of 177 and finished the day unbeaten on 119 off 167 balls with 15 fours and a six.
Batty, who shared in a 77-run sixth-wicket stand with Davies, weighed in with two sixes and seven fours in his 47 before being caught by new County vice-captain Daryl Mitchell off Richard Jones.
Hamilton-Brown hit a blistering hundred off only 96 balls and went on to make 125.
Surrey supporters were questioning the wisdom of making Hamilton-Brown their captain at the age of 22 with only nine first-class matches behind him when they were heavily beaten by Derbyshire and Sussex in their first two championship matches.
His own contributions with the bat were nine, eight, 36 and 11 and it did not look like getting any better when he won the toss on a good pitch.
Stewart Walters, playing his first game of the season, edged the fourth ball of the day from Alan Richardson to Ben Smith at first slip.
Arun Harinath and Mark Ramprakash promised better by putting on 82 for the second wicket.
But Surrey were wobbling again at 82-3 when Ramprakash and Usman Afzaal perished in the same over from Imran Arif.
Ramprakash, who averages 92 on the school ground at Whitgift, seemed to be on his way to another big score when he fell leg before wicket for 40 and Afzaal slapped his fifth ball to Phil Jaques at gully.
It was a testing time for Hamilton-Brown and he needed a huge slice of luck to get through it.
He had made only one when he edged his sixth ball from Jones to second slip where Mitchell put down a straightforward chance.
Hamilton-Brown made Worcestershire pay a heavy price for that.
He went boldly for his strokes as the visitors’ bowling went to pieces, racing to 50 off 56 balls and needing only 40 more to reach his third first-class century and his first for Surrey.
Hamilton-Brown hit three fours in an over three times and had 20 boundaries to his name when he drove a skimming catch to Alexei Kervezee at mid-off.
He had lost Harinath when he was caught behind down the legside off Jack Shantry for 45 but Davies played with great fluency from the start.
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