Josh Blake

JOSH BLAKE

Dedication and persistence have been the hallmarks of Josh Blake’s ascent to the professional ranks.

He had to wait until he was 23 before joining the Surrey staff and, without a single-minded determination to continue pressing his case, might have been forgiven for exploring other career opportunities.

“Josh is very determined and dedicated,” says Peter Edwards, chairman of colts cricket at Sutton, who remembers him arriving at Cheam Road.

“He came along with his dad, who was playing for Park Hill, and his brother Sam. Josh got into the Surrey set-up at nine or 10 but the strength of that age group was amazing and when he was 15 he missed out with the county.”

That might have been the end of his representative cricket for many players but Blake wasn’t going to give up so easily, scoring a pile of runs for Sutton, developing his wicketkeeping skills, and gaining his coaching qualifications.

The lack of any county second team cricket in 2020, caused by the Covid pandemic, proved another hurdle but he made his debut at that level the following season.

Yet Blake began the 2022 summer working for the Surrey Cricket Foundation, watching from the offices at the Kia Oval as the professional squad set about their preparations for a new campaign. His ambition to join them seemed to be sliding out of reach.

But with Ben Foakes in the England team, they needed back-up and persistence finally paid dividends, impressing sufficiently when given a series of opportunities for Alec Stewart to offer a professional contract. The delight at Cheam Road was shared by many around the county who respected his dedication.

Since then, Blake has appeared in all three formats for Surrey, making his first team debut in the One Day Cup against Leicestershire at Guildford later in that 2022 season, playing two matches in the Vitality Blast the following year and gaining his first-class debut at the tailend of the 2024 campaign, against Essex at Chelmsford. It was on that ground that he had scored an unbeaten century in the ODC the previous month, another success in a season which saw him score 755 runs for the Surrey second team at an average of 75 and including a double-century.

“Josh has grasped every opportunity he’s been given and that’s a measure of him,” says Edwards.

While advancing in the professional game, Blake has continued to appear for Sutton as often as possible, a key player in the club returning to the Surrey Championship Premier Division and staying there.

“I used to come down when I was six for colts nights on Wednesdays with Pete,” recalls Blake.

“It’s a great club with some really good people running it. We’ve had some ups and downs over the past few years but getting back up to the Premier Division and then staying in it was huge.”

Jamie Smith

JAMIE SMITH

A lad of six who turned up to Sutton during the summer holidays has become one of English cricket’s hottest properties.

Jamie Smith’s impact on the national team after making his Test debut in 2024 – aged 23 – was so assured, with both bat and gloves, that he looked as if he had been playing at that level for years. By the spring of 2025 he had featured in all three formats.

“Jamie came to one of our summer holiday courses with his older brother,” recalls Peter Edwards, chairman of colt’s cricket at Cheam Road. “He was playing tennis but wanted to give cricket a go.”

Smith’s talent extended to football as well, playing for AFC Wimbledon as a youngster, but it is cricket’s good fortune when he made his choices as a teenager, although the family-wide devotion to West Ham has never changed.

“You could see straightaway that he had fantastic hand-eye coordination,” adds Edwards. “He got into Surrey under-nines and it’s no surprise that he has progressed in the way that he has.”

Smith was only 17 when he made his Surrey debut, in a T20 match against Middlesex at Lord’s in 2018 and, having first appeared for England at one-day international level in 2023, his Test debut came against West Indies back at Lord’s the following summer.

For Edwards there is no secret to Smith’s advancement: “He’s a lovely lad and he’s dedicated – he puts in an enormous amount of work and that has paid off.”

Smith has achieved success both as a top-order batsman – where he features mostly for Surrey – and as a wicketkeeper coming in further down the order. Given he has already captained his county in a number of matches in the One Day Cup, it would be no surprise if he goes on to fulfil that role on the international stage.

“I owe Sutton a great deal,” says Smith. “The club made a real contribution to helping me get started in cricket. I was playing just about every sport when I was six and joining Sutton was a big reason I ended up as a professional cricketer