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If a few of these boys looked up from their phones for a moment they might just see a spot of blue sky over Kennington. Hopefully they are just checking the weather app, or indeed this page!

It might prove to be a false dawn, however, as there looks to be another band of rain rolling in from the west in the not too distant future.

The better news is that things look pretty encouraging after that... here's hoping we see some action in the afternoon and evening session at least.

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I can try, Montague.

There are no rules, per se, as to when a player might receive the ceremonial honour of a county cap. Every club does things slightly differently. It's generally a measure of the standing of the player within the team, the length of their service or sometimes their overall stature in the game.

We've seen overseas players capped on debut, stalwart pros rewarded for their dedication to the club after many years and everything in between.

Director of cricket Alec Stewart is very much a traditionalist and Surrey do not dish them out lightly by any means.

In truth many of us, including Mr Surrey Cricket himself, BBC Radio London's Mark Church, had not realised until yesterday tea-time that Dan Lawrence had not yet received his.

But since 2024 he's proved himself to be a first-team standout across the formats. I suspect he'd have been getting it yesterday whether he made 15 or the 150* he was at tea, not least due to his Friday night heroics in the Blast.

Gone are the days when these caps meant a pay rise, a better parking space or a fancy tie, but to have your name etched into a club's history, especially a club like Surrey, founded in 1845, remains a real honour.

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If we're being positive, the skies look more silver than grey, and there are few harder-working ground staff than at the Oval.

I'm staying positive of cricket today, though whether it comes before the lunch interval is another matter...

The one thing surely nobody in this great game of ours wants is a few overs of action before a 40 minute break.

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If you and I are miffed at the lack of play this morning, spare a thought for the teachers and TAs who have accompanied thousands of children to the Oval for the annual school's day, and have no way of distracting the poor blighters.

It's honestly one of my favourite days of the summer, around 7,000 kids were expected today, and they go absolutely bananas for every little thing that happens, even if they might not all actually understand precisely what is going on, and will clamber over each other to get the autograph of a sub fielder whose name they likely don't know, let alone their average and strike rate.

The hubbub around the ground on days like this is wonderful, think of it like a pleasant version of a vuvuzela crowd...

Let's just keep our fingers crossed things brighten up and we can give those kids some cricket to enjoy.

Sadly not at this stage, Simon, though it seems the worst wave of rain has passed over and is heading towards Kent at this point.

Looks like a half-hour or so before a second, lighter band sweeps in, however, so if I were you I'd keep an eye out of the window and don't give up on that crossword just yet. Oh, and Drink Responsibly!

We'll of course keep you updated on anything official right here...

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Yesterday was an unusual day on a cricket calendar which many would say is already fairly unusual.

There was Test cricket at Lord's, County Championship cricket at the Oval and a host of T20 Blast games elsewhere in the country.

Click here for a round-up of Sunday's white-ball action.

The first block of white-ball action wraps up with three more fixtures tomorrow evening, weather permitting, of course.

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Though they could take over at the top with a win over Hampshire this week (weather permitting, of course) not many would have expected Surrey to be sitting seventh in Division One, with one win from six games to this point.

The Division One table is incredibly tight, with just 20 points separating Yorkshire, in eighth, from leaders and defending champions Notts.

Warwickshire sit second, and Bears all-rounder Dan Mousley believes they can win their first county title since 2021.

Click here for the full story.

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Dan Lawrence is in his third season with Surrey, but he hasn't had a day like Sunday before.

Lawrence was awarded his county cap at the tea interval, just after reaching 150*, and went on to make his maiden double century, less than 48 hours after smashing an unbeaten 94 from 47 balls as Surrey fell narrowly short in the T20 Blast against the same opposition on the same ground.

Lawrence said: “That was a pretty good day at the office! I’m chuffed with the position we’re in and of course to get the 200 - and my county cap as well.

"For the first couple of hours it felt like it was a pitch on which there might be a ball with your name on it but this morning we just tried to take the game on as far as possible and see how conditions turned out later.

"When I first went out there, in the conditions we had earlier, I certainly wasn’t expecting to be scoring a double hundred! It was really just a case of trying to put the pressure back on Hampshire’s bowlers.

“A double hundred is something I’ve always wanted to achieve in first-class cricket, but when I looked at the wicket this morning I didn’t think it would be something that would happen today!

“I’ve felt in really good order this season so far and I just tried to be as positive as possible once I got in."

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Anyone walking into the Oval 24 hours ago, eyeing the track and the clouds, might well have expected Hampshire seamer Kyle Abbott to have himself a day.

It was not to be, although the South African did pick up three wickets to polish off the Surrey tail in the gloom and finished with 3-76 after sending down 20 overs without a breakthrough earlier in the day.

Abbott said: “It felt a long day during the partnership between Dan Lawrence and Ollie Pope but we hung in there when it was tough and came back a bit after Sonny [Baker] got the breakthrough.

"It was not an easy day though for us after winning the toss and I am surprised, given the pitch and conditions at the start, that they have got more than 400.

“The pitch was quite damp this morning but when balls nipped off the surface they were doing so quite slowly.

"It’s good we got to bat ourselves but it was still a tough day for us.”

The bell should be ringing about now, but as you can see from this post from Surrey on social media, external, the covers remain firmly on with rain still falling over Kennington.

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Anyone looking at the lime green track and the blankets of cloud over the Oval yesterday morning would have expected a low-scoring match with the potential for 15+ wickets falling in the day, much like we've seen elsewhere in London in recent days.

This was anything but. Hampshire won the toss and chose to bowl first, but though the scoring was slow in the opening hour, Dom Sibley stood firm for his 39 through the morning session.

When he departed at 98-3 early in the afternoon you thought Hampshire might get their tails up, instead Dan Lawrence and Ollie Pope produced an extraordinary stand of 255 in 37 overs, breaking a club record for the fourth wicket against Hampshire set in 1948.

Fresh from an unbeaten 94 from 47 balls in the T20 between the sides here on Friday night, Lawrence brought up his fourth first class century of the summer, then a new career-best, then a maiden double century from just 172 balls, second only to Kevin Pietersen in Surrey history.

He eventually holed-out for 218 in the madness as the visitors prised out the final six Surrey wickets for just 31 runs as the hosts yet again fell short of maximum batting points.

Hampshire had an awkward 11-over mini-session to face, but they didn't quite make it halfway through before bad light stopped play with the visitors 404 in arrears with all 10 wickets standing.

It's not great, I'm afraid.

We managed to get through nearly 90 overs on day one, despite grey skies and the floodlights being required at points, but the wet stuff has arrived in the capital this morning and the covers are on at the Oval, and look set to be for a while.

Our colleagues at BBC Weather are hopeful things will clear up later in the day, but the forecast is not much better across Tuesday and Wednesday either, in truth.

June in the UK, eh?

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Good morning!

Welcome to day two of the lone County Championship game on the slate this week.

Sunday was an extraordinary day. Before the toss, which Hampshire won, it was overcast at the Oval and the wicket was as soft and green as you've likely ever seen.

Plenty of people who know a lot about cricket expected it to be a low-scoring wicket-fest, given the quality players in the bowling ranks on both sides.

However that didn't happen. Instead we saw a scintillating 255-run fourth-wicket stand between Ollie Pope and Dan Lawrence, who bludgeoned his way to the second fastest double century in Surrey history, the first of his career.

Hampshire rallied with the ball late in the day, taking 6-31 to polish off the hosts and were 32 balls into their reply to Surrey's 421 when bad light stopped play.

The weather is likely to hamper our enjoyment of day two, and we will have a delayed start, but we'll bring you all the action there is, and we have plenty of time to get you up to speed.