Surrey County Cricket Club in 2005 are playing their cricket in the First Division of the County Championship and the Second Division of the totesport League. The 2004 season was a disappointment for Surrey under the captaincy of Jonathan Batty, who was replaced by Mark Butcher for 2005. However, Butcher was out for most of the season due to an injury to his left wrist, leaving Mark Ramprakash as interim captain – one of the few, maybe the only, man to captain both Surrey and their arch-rivals Middlesex. Surrey are 10–3 second favourites for the County Championship – and started their season with a damp draw against neighbours Sussex. In the totesport League, they lost their first game in a high-scoring match at the Oval against Yorkshire, which showed up how long the Surrey tail is. After these games, they then took on the students of Bradford/Leeds UCCE and to their surprise, and the students' credit, Surrey lost by 4 wickets. More concerning though were the injuries picked up by Martin Bicknell, Ian Salisbury and Rikki Clarke, which meant none of these three bowled in the final innings. It got no better for Surrey the following Sunday, when they lost heavily to Durham. Surrey then went to Cardiff to play Glamorgan. The game was won by a combination of Jimmy Ormond, who made a career-best 7 for 63, and Mark Ramprakash who scored a century on the way to notching up his 25,000th first class run. They didn't play then until the May Day Bank Holiday, when they were humbled away to Somerset. On 4 May they were run hard by Staffordshire in the C&G Trophy, who at times threatened to repeat Ireland's humbling of Surrey in 2004, but ultimately the Lions prevailed. They then lost heavily to Nottinghamshire, who went to the top of the Division One table as a result, before beating Divisional whipping boys, Glamorgan convincingly at the Oval. They were then whipped themselves in the Second Division of the National League, as Leicestershire County Cricket Club beat them by 60 runs. On 17 May they beat defending champions Gloucestershire in the Second Round of the C&G Trophy, and three days later won their first totesport League match of the year against Scotland. They then hung on for a draw in the Championship against Kent. It was during this match that it was announced that Surrey were