12 Facts About Stuart Surridge

Walter Stuart Surridge was an English first-class cricketer who captained Surrey County Cricket Club.

Surrey won the title in each of the five years Stuart Surridge was captain, from 1952 to 1956, and then won two more under Peter May to create a sequence that has not been equalled.

From a famous family of cricket bat makers, Stuart Surridge was only a moderate cricketer: a lower order batsman and a right-arm fast-medium bowler, whose stats, by the standards of his time, were somewhat expensive.

Stuart Surridge was 30 before he played in a first-class match, and usually Surridge was only selected for the first team if other players were injured or on Test duty.

Stuart Surridge's belief was that bowlers and catches win matches, and he aimed to win as many matches as he could.

Stuart Surridge's tactics were sometimes ruthless: in one match against a weak Worcestershire, having dismissed his opponents for a total of 25 runs, Surridge declared the Surrey innings closed at just 92 for three wickets, before bowling Worcestershire out again for 40 to win by an innings and 27 runs.

Stuart Surridge's son, called Stuart, played once for Surrey in 1978.

Stuart Surridge introduced the Cobbler football during this time, which was used in the Bundesliga and the 1976 Football League Cup final.

In 1979, Stuart Surridge manufactured the official ball of the English Football League, along with Mitre, with their version being called the UFO and was recognisable by its red stripe.

Stuart Surridge died in 1992 at age 74 while visiting one of the company's factories in Glossop.

In 1993, after his death, the Stuart Surridge family sold the business to Dunlop Slazenger.

The Stuart Surridge brand was then sold on to a group of Indian and South African investors in 2000, before being purchased in 2003 by the SDL Group, based at Burnley in Lancashire.