SURRIDGE - SINCE 1867

1887

Percy, a skilled craftsman carpenter met James Lillywhite and was quickly taught the craft of making cricket bats from start to finish instead of just fixing old ones.

1893

Percy Surridge designed a reinforced toe for the cricket bat and patented the idea. This was the start of the Stuart Surridge & Co Limited, where Percy designed and made bats from his shed.

1900

The first Stuart Surridge cricket bats go on sale and were quickly adopted by the cricketing legend - W.G. Grace

1920

Company passed to Stuart Surridge (Father of Surrey Cricketer) and continued to flourish.   

1937

1937 Advert

1946

Indian Players picking up their bats at the Stuart Surridge factory. 

An increasing demand for English cricket bats came from all over the world. Stuart Surridge cricket bat were used by the Indian team for the game against England, the first test match in ten years.

1950

The company began to grow and by the 1950’s the brand had been passed on to Percy Surridge`s grandson, Stuart Surridge. Stuart Surridge was captain of Surrey CCC and was the most successful Surrey captains to date.
Stuart Surridge & Co Ltd, although very passionate about cricket, started moving into other areas of the sporting world and soon began developing other equipment including hockey sticks, tennis rackets and footballs.

1958

After years of development Stuart Surridge released the first ever synthetic lace-less football and the first of the modern day footballs, the SS Cobbler. The ball was taken to Sweden by the England manager, Walter Winterbottom. The SS Cobbler was tested and proved to be better than any competitors balls after it was catapulted 20 foot higher than its closest rival.The SS Cobbler was chosen for the 1958 World cup in Sweden. Pele used the SS Cobbler in his World Cup debut and the first World Cup to be televised.

1963

1963 Advert

1970/80/90

‘The bigger they are... the harder they hit’ The SS Jumbo - Bat of Choice

More cricketing greats start hitting hard with SS. The SS Jumbo became the bat of choice for many professional and amateur sportsman, including Viv Richards, Graham Gooch and Lance Klusener, Richie Richardson and Mark Taylor.

1979

In 1979 Stuart Surridge became the first official ball supplier of the football league.

1980

Remember that Goal!  1980 Goal of the season Justin Fashanu - Norwich City v Liverpool. Scored with a Stuart Surridge UFO Ball. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Wk34X94Whk

1991

SS sign lucrative sponsorship deals with Paul Gascoigne and well as extending the relationship with Graham Gooch. 

Both Paul and Graham where first and third respectively in this years BBC Personalitiy of the Year Awards.  

1993

After Stuart Surridge’s death in 1992 the family decided to sell the Stuart Surridge & Co Ltd to Dunlop-Slazenger.

2001

After 8 years of being put on snooker cues, tennis rackets, hockey sticks etc the Surridge name was finally sold to an Indian/South African partnership and they rebranded to logo below.

2003

The SDL Group Ltd took over as UK Distributor and takes over the contracts of designing and manufacturing of pro kit for the Scottish Saltires and Gloucestershire CCC

2004

Cricket finally came home in 2004, when Surridge signed a sponsorship deal with Surrey CCC, the ancestrial home of the Surridge Brand. The Stuart Surridge gates are still present at the Oval.  

2005

The Stuart Surridge brand (worldwide) was finally bought by the SDL Group Ltd and became known as Surridge Sport, still keeping the SS trademark. The Worldwide distributor programme was started. 

2006

SS became proud kit manufacturers and sponsors to MK Dons 

2007

The oval Surridge trademark was changed bringing forward a more modern and versatile logo but still recognisable by the SS symbol. 2007 was also the year of the Cricket World Cup - Surridge was kit supplier to two playing teams, including Holland and Scotland. 

2007 also saw us agree a kit manufacturers contract with Bury FC which lasted 8 seasons. 

2008

Surridge become the biggest name in cricket in 2008, being official kit supplier to more counties than any other brand. Supplying Surrey, Gloucestershire, Northampton, Durham, Glamorgan, Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Essex. 

2008 also saw SS play at Wembley with Barnsley FC in their FA Cup semi final against Cardiff City. 

2010

This year we secured our first large University contract.  This started another era for SS as a major supplier to the education market. The University market helped SS develop playing garments for 60+ different sports.

2011

SS sign a supply deal with Cheltenham College who we still deal with today, starting our development into the schools market.

2013

SS do the deal with Mansfield FC and are still the present supplier to this day.