Trescothick landmark buoys Somerset

Spectators at The Oval spent much of the day moving in and out of cover. Those that remained after the third rain delay deserve credit: only a matter of miles away, hail was falling in the capital. While that threat failed to make its way south, those hearty few might not have minded after seeing Marcus Trescothick further cement his legend in domestic folklore. In his 23rd season as a first-class cricketer, he became Somerset's second-highest run-scorer of all time.

Many knew it was coming. When Tom Curran was guided down to third man for four to move Trescothick on to 13, Tom Abell made a note of shaking hands with the 40-year-old, who passed Peter Wight's total of 16,965 with the boundary. Neither Curran nor Abell had been born when Trescothick made his first-class debut in 1993.

Now only Harold Gimblett stands in his way. But with more than 4000 runs needed to topple the 1953 Wisden Cricketer of the Year, second might have to do.

It is still a baffling achievement, quite frankly. Looking through Trescothick's first-class numbers requires a few double-takes. It seems inevitable that by the end of the season he will have passed 24,000 first-class runs. If those runs are as easy to come by as they were at The Oval, where he brought up his 177th score of 50 or more, then 25,000 is well within reach.

There is a temptation to watch each aspect of Trescothick's game still on public display - the effortless straight drives with Dalek-like footwork or the caresses through backward point that belie the tree-trunk willow and Popeye forearms - and sink back into "what ifs". What if his Test career hadn't been cut short? What if this otherworldly opener was saved from the very human troubles that affected him?

But here he is, aged 40, still playing the game he loves, still achieving and getting things done. The only noticeable difference is that he now requires four eyes to do so. Somerset started their first innings 463 behind but you could not tell there were any external forces affecting Trescothick, now batting in spectacles, and the matter at hand.

Surrey's opening duo of Tom Curran and Mark Footitt started a bit too wide but, when they eventually got their lines right, Trescothick pulled out his patented curtain-rail leave. On a handful of occasions, Curran, having moved to around the wicket, thought he had the left-hander beaten. But Trescothick was simply moving his bat inside the line of the ball. It was a feather in Curran's cap that Trescothick did not score off 32 of the 37 balls he sent his way. Footitt and Ravi Rampaul were not quite so lucky.

While Footitt would bag the only Somerset wicket of the day - Abell hooking high to Arun Harinath at deep square leg - he was also hit for three fours in an over by Trescothick, the first of which brought up his fifty from 75 balls, before being cut ferociously over backward point for the innings' first six. Rampaul, too, was not allowed to settle as he was carted through point when offering a bit of width.

The morning session was a peculiar mishmash of Surrey trying and failing to make their last five wickets count and Somerset curtailing them while dropping catches.

Zafar Ansari, who was let-off the previous evening on 28, was shelled yet again with 42 to his name. He would go on to complete his half-century off 111 balls before offering a third chance with his 112th, which Trescothick managed to hold at second slip. Curran and Gareth Batty were both run out through indecision and fine work by Roelof van der Merwe, respectively, before Footitt found cover to round off a lower-order collapse of 5 for 69.

From the wreckage, Tim Groenewald emerged with 5 for 94 - his second five-wicket haul for Somerset. Ryan Davies, in his first season after signing from Kent, took his first Championship catch for the county when Ben Foakes nicked behind for the first wicket of the day.

When stumps was eventually called after a lot of back and forth between the players, umpires and the ground staff, 43 overs had been lost. Trescothick and Chris Rogers reconvene on Tuesday, still 364 behind but knowing that the weather has given them a helping hand in saving this match.