County Championship - day one (close)

Surrey 42-0 v Somerset 269

A DRAMATIC early afternoon collapse hampered Somerset's progress as they slipped to a below-par 269 all out on day one of their County Championship clash against Surrey at The Oval.

The visitors lost six wickets for 42 runs either side of the lunch interval before a vital 86 from Steve Davies helped them to 269 all out, with Surrey then reaching 42-0 by the close.

It had all started so well for Somerset, who won the toss, elected to bat and added 96 for the opening wicket as Marcus Trescothick and Eddie Byrom settled in at the top of the order.

Trescothick played some vintage drives on his way to 65, with Byrom more watchful at the other end, but the former England opener fell to the last ball of the morning session after being trapped in front by veteran spinner Gareth Batty.

Surrey all-rounder Rikki Clarke then ran through the Somerset batting line-up after lunch, with George Bartlett the first to go when he edged to Kumar Sangakarra at slip on four.

James Hildreth (1) followed lbw, and captain Tom Abell departed for a duck having already survived an edge to slip which Surrey thought had carried.

Somerset's skipper stood his ground on that occasion but had no choice when Clarke shattered his stumps soon afterwards, leading to quite a send off from the fired up 35-year-old bowler.

Abell's departure meant Somerset had fallen to 96-0 to 105-4, and that became 122-5 when Byrom (42) departed for a score between 38 and 43 for the sixth time in 12 First Class innings after deflecting a Clarke short ball to Stuart Meaker in the gully.

Peter Trego didn't last long either, making just two before becoming Clarke's fifth victim when he was clean bowled.

Suddenly, from eyeing up maximum batting points on a traditionally batting-friendly wicket, Somerset were 138-6 and even one batting point looked a long way off.

Steve Davies, who scored 142 in the reverse fixture against his former side in August, helped stem the tide alongside Craig Overton, and the pair added 53 for the seventh wicket before Overton was bowled by Sam Curran for a hard-fought 24.

Dom Bess joined Davies, who brought up a crucial half-century from 67 balls with six boundaries, to take Somerset past 250 as the earlier damage was somewhat repaired.

Clarke returned to bring an end to the innings, however, with Bess chipping a return catch back to the bowler on 27 and Davies mistiming a pull shot 14 runs short of his century.

Jack Leach (2) had been trapped lbw by Batty in between times, but Clarke was the star of the show and ended with figures of 7-55 from 18 overs.

Somerset were then provided with 14 overs at their hosts in the evening, but the search for early wickets proved elusive as Rory Burns (16*) and Mark Stoneman (21*) saw Surrey through to the close despite the visiting seamers beating the bat on numerous occasions.

The visitors' haul of two batting points was one more than Middlesex managed against Lancashire at Lord's, but last year's champions have reduced their visitors to 100-5 in reply.

At Headingley, meanwhile, relegation rivals Yorkshire dominated the opening day against a doomed Warwickshire.

The hosts finished the day on 62-1 having earlier bowled out the bottom-placed side for 219.