Sam Curran’s four-wicket haul put Surrey on top at The Oval against Lancashire on day one.
Curran took 4-61, whilst Stuart Meaker claimed three victims as Jordan Clark top-scored for Lancs with 56 of their 287 all out.
Surrey reached 50-0 at the close, 237 behind with all ten wickets in hand.
Curran's make quick breakthrough
After turning down the option to bowl first, Lancashire won the toss and batted as the Curran brothers took the new ball and took just seven overs to make a breakthrough.
Sam Curran trapped Luke Procter in front for five to leave the visitors 15-1 early on, but Liam Livingstone joined the in-form Haseeb Hameed.
Lancashire found it hard going at The Oval, bringing the 50 up in over 20 overs before Meaker struck thanks to a smart leg side catch from Ben Foakes behind the stumps.
Sam Curran struck again eight overs later to remove the dangerous Alviro Petersen for 17 after he played on trying to leave the ball, which opened the floodgates as three wickets fell for just 18 runs as Livingstone went to Tom Curran for a gritty 37, giving Foakes his second catch.
Lancashire weren’t to score another run for three overs before Steven Croft became Sam Curran’s third scalp, as well as Foakes as he became the third man to be caught behind for 12.
Debutant Rob Jones was joined by Clark and the pair went on the counter-attack, hitting 85 from the next 25 overs until that pair struck again.
The two set batsmen were both removed in the space of three overs after Kumar Sangakkara took a fantastic one-handed diving catch to his right to see the back of Clark for a 75-ball 56 before Jones dragged Sam Curran on for a solid 25 on debut.
That led to Curran’s 4-61 from 17 overs and left Lancashire 198-7 but Arron Lilley wasn’t hanging about, uppercutting Meaker for six before hitting a drive over cover for six just before tea.
He was to hit two more sixes after tea to move to 38 and the pair had put on 33 in five overs when Kyle Jarvis was Tom Curran’s second wicket of the day.
Lilley went for 38 from 28 shortly after as he edged a short ball from Meaker through to Foakes behind the stumps to give him 3-83 from 20 overs, the seamer getting the last laugh after some lusty blows from Lilley.
Mark Footitt got himself on the board at last after Lancs’ final pair of Nathan Buck and Simon Kerrigan had frustrated Surrey and put on 48 in nine overs for the final wicket, Kerrigan hitting a brisk 25 from 27 before he was caught behind, giving Foakes his fifth catch of the innings.
Buck was left stranded on 24 but the pair had given Lancashire a fairly competitive score and took Lancashire to 287 all out after being 99-5.
Surrey had 15 overs left to bat after taking just 78 to bowl out Lancashire and Rory Burns went to 1,000 Championship runs for the season early on in the innings as Surrey went about their business cautiously at the end of day one.
Surrey closed on 50-0 from their 15 overs with Burns unbeaten on 33 and fellow opener Dominic Sibley ten not out overnight.