Hampshire Cricket History

HAMPSHIRE v ESSEX, Friday 29 June

Maxwell joined Katich at 94-4 and scored 60* in a partnership of 83* in exactly six overs (13-18) which won the match. He reached his fifty from 20 balls, including 30 in one over. His complete innings was:

141(wide)14041(lb)1122(lb)464664016

Incidentally some reports and Cricinfo stats show this as a 24 ball innings reaching his fifty in 21 balls BUT that is only true if the wide is counted as a ball. Since it’s not a legitimate ball I think the figures should read 20/23 NOT 21/24.

I was not sure how he compared with other significant T20 innings for Hampshire like Shane Watson’s 97, Lumb’s century and various from Adams – not least when we collapsed against Somerset two years ago. Discussions with Simon Walter (Echo) suggest that the previous fastest T20 half century for Hampshire was by Nic Pothas in 25 balls v Essex at Chelmsford in 2010 – at least until last Sunday when Maxwell’s fifty took 22 balls.

As below, the situation is still that if Hampshire win their remaining games they will qualify for the QFs

This morning things are very simple – tonight they may be less so

Hampshire have five matches remaining and if they win all five they will qualify for the quarter finals.

Today HM the Queen has unveiled a tribute to Bomber Command, particularly those who died in the War.

One of the casualties was Donald F ‘Hooky’ Walker who is standing far right in this team picture from 1939. Next to him is Leo Harrison, now 90 and centre back is Neil McCorkell who recently reached his century. ‘Hooky’ on the other hand was killed when the plane he was piloting was shot down in 1941 – he was 29. A longer account (by Stephen Saunders) appears in the 2010 Hampshire Handbook.

In 1946, John Arlott spent his first summer reporting cricket, mainly with the Indian tourists. When he came to their match with Hampshire at Southampton, soon after the resumption of English first-class cricket, he wrote:

“Southampton, most familiar of all cricket grounds for me, looked battered still from its war experiences and the weather, dully, did little brighten it. Rain was never far away and the wicket was damp and responsive to spin. Donald Walker would have put his head down and used his dancing feet to reach the pitch of the ball: but Donald will never play cricket again and for me the Southampton ground will always carry a sad memory of him.” (Indian Summer 1946)

(See previous post. Well done Peter & Bob)

BACK (L-R) Mark Nicholas, Paul Terry, Martin Doulton, David Rock, Richard Elms, Bobby Parks

FRONT (L-R) Alan Castell, Jim Parks, Peter Sainsbury, Jimmy Gray, Keith Wheatley

Doulton was a pace bowler from New Forest way who won a competition to find a fast bowler came onto the staff and left again without playing first-class/1st XI cricket. Everyone else did do so – Elms most significant place in Hampshire’s history probably when he played against them in 1973 …..

First shown to me by Bobby Parks (standing far right) and provided by Andrew Renshaw who played in that game for Eversley. He and Bobby were both wicketkeepers (and Parks snr of course, front row second left) but can you spot the wicketkeeper here? This is a Hampshire and ex-Hampshire XI representing the Eversley President in September 1979. I’ll give you more names later but have a go!

Some of you may recall that with the 100^th Birthday of Neil McCorkell, I speculated on whether Harry Downer might be next in line. I wrote (below)

Harry Rodney Downer from Southampton was making his first-class debut v Middlesex at Lord’s but was dismissed twice by Etherington for just 1 & 4. He would play only one more match later that year against Gloucestershire where he made 0 & 3 (run out). And that was that for Harry in first-class cricket but as far as we know he is still alive and having been born on 15 October 1915 he is 96.

This Blog post was spotted by his daughter Sarah Downer who replied:

My father, Harry Downer passed away in Montreal Quebec Canada in March 1980; he was 64 years old.

I don’t think any cricket folk knew this. There is no information on Cricket Archive and I cannot recall seeing an obituary. So I replied to Sarah and she sent this further information:

Hello and thank you for your very kind reply. My parents arrived in Canada in 1952 and Father continued to play cricket and field hockey with amateur teams in Montreal. He had a very successful career in the optical business but sadly heart disease led to an early death. He is survived by my mother, Patricia who will be 90 this year and my brother Michael.

With best regards, Sarah (proud daughter)

I’ve been talking with Simon Walter at the Echo about Maxwell’s extraordinary innings yesterday – for example he joined Ervine on 1* and by the time he reached his fifty Ervine was 2* and the partnership 52. I’m not sure yet how he compares with other significant T20 innings for Hampshire like Shane Watson’s 97, Lumb’s century and various from Adams – not least when we collapsed against Somerset two years ago. I’ll have a longer look and would welcome suggestions on the Comments below

His complete innings yesterday was:

00064060166461001210240001600144 (a total of 32 balls)

In last year’s two ‘divisions’ of the T20 there were 144 matches of which 23 ended as No Result, which is 16%

To date (including last night) in this year’s three ‘divisions’, there have been 7 No Results in 28 scheduled matches so 25%.

Here are two shots from the Derek Shackleton Bar today where we have hung a new large perspex tribute to the 1973 Champions (just ahead of their 40th anniversary) and to Peter Sainsbury our only ‘double Champion’ and one of the greatest of the Hampshire-born players.

We’re grateful to Grapefruit Graphics for the production (and fixing!) and especially to Portsmouth Area Supporters who funded the board. I’m now calling this the Champions Corner as all the displays link to 1961 and 1973. I met Giles White while there and we agreed an addition in 2013 would be most welcome!

(click on the image to see a larger version)

Here is the ‘events’ calendar for Portsmouth & Southsea in 1954 showing all kinds of seaside entertainment typical of the period with six matches played by Hampshire, including a friendly v Sussex, the tourist match (in which Portsmouth’s Mike Barnard made his maiden first-class century) and two cricket weeks – in July and August. I should be nostalgic but this was that wettest, coldest and least sunny summer of the 20th century in England – although Hampshire lost more playing time to rain in 1958. Incidentally the wettest decade was the 1960s so I can’t pretend any longer to recall the wonderful summers of my childhood (I was born in 1949)!