Adam Hollioake crashed a century as champions Surrey looked for an emphatic end to their season against Leicestershire at The Oval.

The home skipper was 146 not out, having faced just 148 deliveries, including 18 fours and three sixes, when bad light stopped play 50 minutes early.

It was Hollioake's second century in his eighth Championship outing this season.

Alongside him, the usually exuberant Alistair Brown was patient by comparison, hitting an 89 not out from 105 balls, with 12 boundaries.

Already 468 in arrears, Leicestershire's mathematical hopes of finishing in second spot look even less likely.

Seven wickets fell for the addition of 56 runs in the morning, as the Foxes failed to capitalise on Darren Maddy's century.

Maddy finished 127 not out when he ran out of partners.

Tim Murtagh took the last three wickets to fall, including Javagal Srinath and Devon Malcolm with successive deliveries.

Acceleration

Surrey's second innings stuttered with 89 runs on the board as Devon Malcolm dismissed Nadeem Shahid and Graham Thorpe in the space of a single over.

And spinner Carl Crowe then had Scott Newman caught for 21.

But Hollioake's subsequent acceleration left the breakthrough a distant memory as he and Brown put on an unbroken partnership of 246.

Surrey: I J Ward, S A Newman, N Shahid, G P Thorpe, A D Brown, A J Hollioake (Capt), J N Batty (Wkt), I D K Salisbury, T J Murtagh, P J Sampson, J Ormond.

Leicestershire: I J Sutcliffe (Capt), R J Cunliffe, D L Maddy, D I Stevens, A S Wright, N D Burns (Wkt), D G Brandy, P A J DeFreitas, J Srinath, C D Crowe, D E Malcolm.