Paul Horton sounds like a 'fair-dinkum Aussie', after all he was born and raised in Sydney, but these days he plays cricket like a proud and dogged Lancastrian.
His willingness to dig in and bat long periods for his adopted county was self-evident on the opening day at Guildford where, on a slow pitch, Horton maintained his concentration to post the 15th first-class hundred of his career.
Through three short breaks for thunder, lightning, bad light and showers, Horton reached his second hundred of a successful season. The 29-year-old featured in a second wicket stand worth 122 with Karl Brown and then added 64 with his third-wicket partner Ashwell Prince, during which neither man looked in much trouble against a lacklustre Surrey attack.
Unsurprisingly perhaps, Prince, the left-handed South Africa Test batsman, is Lancashire's leading scorer in this rain-ruined summer with 600 runs already under his belt. Yet Horton, with over 500, is making a sound job of pushing Prince for his title on top of the averages.
Having won the toss, Surrey enjoyed only one breakthrough in the opening session when Stuart Meaker swung one in to trap Stephen Moore leg before. Brown then kept him company for a shade over two hours and was only one short of his 50 when he too fell to Meaker, caught behind after a nondescript attempted dab to third man.
Horton, a solid, dependable if unspectacular opening bat who graduated from the Lancashire Academy after his schooling in Liverpool, suffered only one nervous moment on his way to three figures when, with his score on 55, he fenced at a Chris Tremlett delivery only to see the edge fall a foot short of second slip.
Otherwise, Horton appeared unfazed by Surrey's all international seam-bowling triumvirate of Tremlett, Meaker and Jonathan Lewis. Indeed, as a staunch Liverpool fan, Horton probably fretted more over the news that Brendan Rogers, his favourite club's new manager, was contemplating allowing star striker Andy Carroll to move away on loan.
The rain came and went either side of an early tea break with the loss of 18 overs, but Horton returned complete a 219-ball hundred. He perished soon after, having batted more than four and a half hours, when Tremlett had him caught by Gareth Batty, the acting Surrey captain, away to his left at slip.
Prince ploughed on thereafter, as is his wont, to remain unbeaten on 32 and leave Surrey to mull over another gloomy day at the office.
Injuries, the retirement of Mark Ramprakash and the absence of their skipper Rory Hamilton-Brown on compassionate leave following the sudden death of his flat-mate and colleague, Tom Maynard, have undoubtedly left Surrey in the doldrums going into the second half of the campaign.
"It's a though the side have had the collective wind knocked out of them," said team Surrey's team director Chris Adams, in explaining the effect of last month's tragedy surrounding Maynard. "We're trying to move on and cannot simply let the season peter out, but different deal with these things at different paces and we have to do all we can to support that process."