Hampshire Cricket History

The very excellent Andrew Hignell (scorer, Glamorgan) has produced his annual records of play lost to rain in the County Championship. From it, the following, which shows last season as the wettest this century. He makes the point that it’s therefore little surprise that few players reached 1,000 runs or 50 wickets so especially well done to Jimmy Adams and David Balcombe:

Year        Hours lost

2000         774

2001         628

2002         455

2003         595

2004         741

2005         471

2006         398

2007         757

2008         686

2009         477

2010         400

2011         277

2012         890

The Hampshire team are home of course but Neil McKenzie was in the side that knocked Yorkshire out yesterday (something of a habit) while Simon Katich has been batting today for the Perth team.

Yes – Hampshire’s 2012 season finished yesterday, 11 October, more than six months after it started

Bob asks about Michael Bates playing every match. Is it a record for a wicketkeeper? I’m prepared to bet that Leo Harrison, Bryan Timms and Bob Stephenson (at least) all had at least one season of unbroken service but I haven’t checked

I suspect the county record resides with Yorkshire’s Jimmy Binks although he may have missed some non-Championship matches: From June 1955, he played in every single Championship game played by Yorkshire until he retired at the end of the 1969 season

Incidentally Sean Ervine also played in every match this year and since he bowled more he showed it’s possible to keep fit by playing. Well done both.

I’m just watching the end of Hampshire’s awful T20 match against Auckland Aces in the Champions League. I can confirm in the 50th anniversary of the start of knock-out matches between first-class sides that Hampshire have never travelled further (circa 8,000 miles) to play for fewer overs (35th over) to be knocked out of any competition in the first match. Still at least there were only 27 people watching (plus 20 dancing girls).

PS: Captain ‘Dimi’ Mascarenhas said “It’s a shame when the wicket dictates the whole game and losing the toss of a coin. But to their credit they got it in the right areas and, after we made 120, we were never going to win that. Carbs played nicely and stuck in there and we thought we had a chance to get up to 140 at one stage but we just kept losing wickets and it’s hard to create a big score when you keep losing wickets like that.”

We are approaching the 150th Anniversary of the formation of Hampshire County Cricket Club, late in the season of 1863 – but when exactly did it occur and why am I asking the question?

Partly because as a young member I attended the match at Southampton on the 11, 12 & 13 of September 1963 between Hampshire and an MCC All England XI which was to celebrate the Centenary of the Club and because just six years previously the Club’s “Official History” by Desmond Eagar, Harry Altham and John Arlott described how in 1863

“On 11th September a largely attended meeting took place at the Antelope Inn, Southampton and a county cricket club was there and then formed”.

This information appears also in the recent publication by Alan Edwards (Hampshire Cricket: On this Day) but in between, in 1988, the eminent historian Peter Wynne-Thomas published The History of Hampshire County Cricket Club and opened Chapter Two by describing how

“On 12 August 1863 ‘an influential meeting of the gentry of Hampshire’ was held and a new County Cricket Club was formed” (his quotation has no attribution)

So, was it August or September 1863? The answer, almost inevitably, is both and the most comprehensive account is probably that by FS Ashley-Cooper in his (now rare) publication of 1924 Hampshire County Cricket Club.

I will post a full account and quote from the minutes now held in Winchester’s County Archives in the next post and then outline some of our plans for celebrating the anniversary.

(see post below)

From the author, Stephen Cooper:

RWF (Wilfred) Jesson, Southampton-born was a Hampshire County cricketer from 1907 -09, once taking the wicket of Jack Hobbs. He fought in the Great War and rose to become a Major in the 5th Wiltshire Regiment. He was wounded at Gallipoli, recuperated from shell-shock at the old Netley Hospital and was finally killed near Kut, Mesopotamia in February 1917. He was also a rugby half-back for Trojans and Rosslyn Park – one of 85 members of that club to die in the War.

Their story is told in The Final Whistle: the Great War in Fifteen Players, now available in paperback or Kindle online at Amazon and in good bookshops.

It’s been interesting to watch the Sri Lankan slow-left-armer Herath take 3-25 today in their semi-final against Pakistan. He’s had a pretty good career since his disappointing short spell at Hampshire a couple of years ago. The finish looks tight although I’ve just lost the picture – shortly after future Hampshire player Afridi was bowled first ball. He’s not in good form with the bat at present.

If/when the picture comes back then I should get to watch the Australians who may include Christian and Maxwell alongside one of the stars, Shane Watson. He remains the only Hampshire batsman to score centuries on debut in first-class and limited-overs cricket

(Click on the image to enlarge)

Given to me on Sunday – a picture from my early days as a Hampshire supporter with Jimmy Gray and Henry Horton walking out at 2.10 pm. I’ve no more details but since this is after the old lunch interval (1.30-2.10) I assume Hampshire were one down at lunch (RE Marshall)