Memories of last year's win over Surrey will certainly be fresh in our minds when we prepare for what is probably the most eagerly awaited Championship match of the season so far.

We performed brilliantly in that game almost a year ago, while it's fair to say that they underperformed slightly.

Whatever, that win virtually secured our place in Division One for another season and while you would have expected Surrey to be on top of the table again on their next visit to Hove I doubt if there were many people who thought we would be their nearest challengers.

The side is full of confidence at the moment as you would expect after four successive Championship wins, but I'm not changing my opinion.

Surrey have such a strong squad and you would expect them to win five or even more of their seven remaining games which would make it awfully difficult for us to overtake them.

The main thing about beating Leicestershire last week was that it means if we win two more games it more or less guarantees runners-up spot which would be a fantastic achievement. Eight victories and whatever you pick up in the other matches should get you past 200 points. Not that we're settling for second-best just yet, the confidence in the dressing room is really buzzing at the moment, but for now all we're concentrating on is this weekend's match against Nottinghamshire.

The moment you start looking too far ahead of yourselves is when you inevitably come a cropper.

Cricketers get used to the media spotlight, especially those who frequent the international stage.

But, having followed Tiger Woods around on his final round at last week's Open, it's nothing to the frenzy which accompanies the world's No. 1 golfer every time he plays a round.

There must have been 35 photographers snapping away on every shot he took as well as dozens of reporters and a small army of spectators. No matter that Tiger was four shots off the lead and never really threatened to win, the gallery stayed with him throughout.

Like me and Mark Davis, who came with me to Sandwich, they were convinced Tiger would start charging up the leaderboard at any time.

In contrast, I think I counted one cameraman with Thomas Bjorn and none at all with the eventual winner Ben Curtis. It certainly didn't surprise me to see the only pictures of the American in Monday's paper were of him holding the trophy!

Respect to Tiger. The way he copes with that sort of spotlight and is still able to play golf to the consistently high standard that he does is astonishing.

Congratulations to Andrew Hodd, one of the members of our Academy, who has been named in the England team for next month's first under-19 Test against South Africa.

According to Tony Cottey, who has played and seen enough cricket to know what he's talking about, Andrew plays proper shots, keeps well and has a good temperament and great attitude.

We're so fortunate now to have such strength in depth in terms of wicketkeeper-batsmen. Long may it continue.

Saturday July 26