Champions Surrey were denied the chance to record a 10th successive Specsavers County Championship win when their match against Somerset was abandoned without a ball bowled on the final day.

Overnight storms blew the covers off the pitch and the significant damage to the pitch rendered it unplayable, leaving umpires Alex Wharf and Tim Robinson with no choice but to end the match.

The visitors clinched the Division One title with victory at Worcestershire last week, but were well placed to continue their dominant form and seal an 11th win of the season.

Somerset had been due to resume their second innings on 168 for three, needing a further 171 to avoid an innings defeat.

But the movement of the covers due to the overnight weather stopped Surrey in their tracks, something which did not please director of cricket Alec Stewart, who is hoping the England and Wales Cricket Board look at the matter moving forward.

“It’s very frustrating, Stewart told the Surrey website. “Yes it was very windy and I’m sure Somerset haven’t done this on purpose in any shape or form.

“But we were trying to win a game, we were trying to win 10 on the bounce and it’s been taken out of our hands in a game where we were well ahead. So (we are feeling) massive frustration.

“It will be interesting looking forward, these things don’t happen too often, but imagine if this game had potentially been a Championship decider which it was looking like a few games ago.

“A lot more would have been said, so it’s probably worth the ECB looking ahead should this type of thing happen again. Not so much what would be the repercussions, but what would happen.

“Is it just an abandoned game, or is it the home side’s responsibility to ensure that the covering is of the right standard? I don’t know.”

Surrey took 13 points and Somerset six, a good outcome for the home side, who had been largely outplayed and faced a backs-to-the-wall batting effort.

They now need just six points from their final match against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge to be sure of being runners-up to Surrey.

But for the champions, their chance to keep up their remarkable winning run was taken away from them.

“That’s the frustration, yes we won the Championship but we came here wanting to extend that winning streak,” Stewart said.

“And we were ahead in this game. When you are on that winning streak you want to continue it, this is out of our control and nothing that has anything to do with cricket. Therefore that’s a real disappointment.”

Somerset chief executive Andrew Cornish said the home side were frustrated like Surrey because of the abandonment.

Cornish said: “There was a huge storm last night and the covers have lifted up slightly at one end.

“That caused the flat cover to move away. Water has got underneath and settled in an area which the umpires deemed has made the pitch unplayable.

“It’s really frustrating and not how we wanted our home season to finish. Over the last few weeks we have had some difficult days, so we were looking to build on some of the momentum that Azhar Ali and Tom Abell were giving us last night.

“It could have been a really exciting day’s play and the weather is beautiful here now. But there was only one conclusion that the umpires could come to and they took that decision early to let as many people as possible know.”