THREE innings victories in succession for the first time in 60 years have sent Surrey flying to the top of the Specsavers County Championship.

Their crushing of Somerset at the Guildford Festival last week was the latest in a series of emphatic displays, making it four wins out of six for new skipper Rory Burns.

It sent them off to face Yorkshire at Scarborough this week with a lead of 13 points and there is genuine belief among the side that they can land the Division One title, last claimed in 2002, while acknowledging they have a long way to go yet.

That was underlined by a tricky first two days at Scarborough where Yorkshire – led by Jonathan Tattersall’s valiant 70 – recovered from 166-6 to reach 342 all out and then reduced the visitors to 219-7 at the end of the second day. Further problems for Surrey came in the shape of a sea fret, which made batting tricky, and a five-run penalty imposed by the umpires for two disciplinary offences.

Having arrived at Guildford leading by one point, Somerset barely got a look-in after using their right to insert the hosts on a green-tinged pitch. They were unlucky in frequently failing to find the edge early on and found themselves under pressure after conceding 459.

Much of that was down to Ollie Pope who built on early contributions from Burns (66), Arun Harinath (48) and Scott Borthwick (84) to crack 117. It was the 20-year-old’s fourth first-class century in only his 12th game, taking the initiative away from Somerset’s bowlers in typically enterprising style.

Pope was one of four players in the home side who had made his way with the help of Guildford’s colts programme, the others being Rikki Clarke, Jade Dernbach and debutant Will Jacks.

Even more remarkable, though, was the impact of Pope’s fellow 20-year-old, Ryan Patel. Handed the ball by Burns with Somerset at 169-4 in the 56th over, the medium-pacer produced an incredible burst of six wickets for five runs in 23 balls.

The first five came in 11 deliveries of utter mayhem and within 30 minutes Somerset had been dismissed for 180 and sent back in, 279 behind.

Patel handed much credit to bowling coach Geoff Arnold, for telling him to keep it simple. And there was no great mystery to his method – he bowled straight and on a full length which enabled him to find late movement, a recipe which sent his opponents into meltdown.

His observation that “it’s all a bit surreal” summed up the situation perfectly.

Following on, the visitors were all but sunk by the time they reached 69-5 within an hour on the third and final day. Only James Hildreth, with a stylish and unbeaten 89, displayed the resolution required against an aggressive attack in which Morne Morkel, who has given Surrey a spearhead they have been sorely lacking for several years, and Dernbach each claimed four wickets. It was little more than Dernbach deserved, given he had three catches dropped off him in the first innings.

Somerset were dismissed for 210, Surrey winning by an innings and 69 runs.