Hampshire Cricket History

As I suspected, Carberry is back with England* – presumably cover for Tuesday so it’s the same 13 as v Leics – including Tom Alsop about whom there is a piece in the Cricket Paper this week.

There was an odd story in the Portsmouth News today that Chris Wood is not yet fit for four-day cricket. If he were fit, whose place would he take?

*PS Today’s ODI was VERY GOOD VALUE!!

Victories that is – VERY well played Hampshire. I feel some sympathy for ‘Carbs’ however; he’s now played four limited overs innings this year, two for us and two for England and his scores are 0, 4, 6 & 7. Someone will cop it soon I suspect.

Tomorrow night, assuming he plays, Sean Ervine will be the first Hampshire player ever to reach 100 competitive T20 appearances (including Caribbean Tournaments)

Alex Hales has been released by England for the final two ODIs but Carberry remains – presumably in reserve – so won’t play tomorrow or v Derbys

Because of dodgy weather the 50-over match started late but lasted fewer overs than a normal T20. The 10 wicket win was very encouraging (except for Michael Carberry) but once again, imagine spending about £50 on a ticket to sit in cold damp weather and watch a non-event! Meanwhile it seems as though Glamorgan will be done out of what seemed an easy win as the rain’s arrived after Leicestershire lost four wickets for one run. Since their final day against Hampshire, Leics seem to have reverted to type.

Meanwhile with all the top sides having played six matches, Hampshire stay top with significantly more batting points than anyone else, yet only the bottom two teams have fewer bowling points. Glamorgan could not get back on so after six matches Hampshire are 35 points ahead of the third-placed side.

Hampshire’s Junior members, known as ‘Zooters’ had a fun half-term day today watching the players practise in the indoor nets then queueing to get bats, shirts, books and pictures signed. I was a junior member from 1961 and would have loved something like that!

Incidentally the outfield had a patchwork appearance today following the Manilow concert on Saturday. Hopefully it will be in use on Sunday as the forecast now looks far better. Meanwhile Hampshire’s opponents have fallen victim to the weather this week – it seems today that only Glamorgan can hope to press for victory while Essex v Surrey is already off.

If you’ve been following the John Arlott Atrium project you may like to know that more quotes have gone up today including three Oxforshire men, George Brown, Neville Rogers and Alan Castell.

To follow up the Benny Howell post and Bob’s comments, he did indeed play only one first-class match for Hampshire but quite a few more limited overs games and I took this photo at Whitgift School exactly three years ago last Sunday when he reached a century and went on to 122 before being run out. The Surrey bowler is Chris Jordan who on that day had figures of 6-0-53-0; things have improved for him since then haven’t they! It was avery high scoring match – Surrey 311-7 beat Hampshire 275 in 40 overs – sadly the top-scorer for Surrey was Tom Maynard.

All the other eight Div 2 sides are in action, with bottom two Leics and Derbys playing their fifth matches and the other six catching up with Hampshire on six played. They’re all halfway through their four day matches

In good weather you’d expect Glamorgan to stuff Leics today leaving them about 25 points behind Hampshire but good weather is by no means certain over the next two days which may suit us. Elsewhere it suits us also that Essex and Surrey are cancelling each other out and not accruing lots of batting points. Second placed Worcs (12 behind at the start) look quite well placed but it’s still early in their first innings and again they can’t be sure of two full days to come. If it’s a draw they have three bowling points so far. Overall, with five first innings completed, only Glamorgan have got beyond 280. Hampshire’s batting is generally stronger than that.

On a gloomier note, the weekend forecast suggests another dodgy Sunday looming. It’s not much of a summer yet, is it?

PS Start of Day Three – play only in Glams v Leics

PPS: 4.15 and no play in any of the four matches now, with Worcs’ game off for the day.

… but maybe of a certain quirky interest

Yesterday Marcus North made his debut for Derbyshire having left Glamorgan. You may remember that he played just under one day for Hampshire in 2009 at Edgbaston before being called up by the Aussies.

Well his innings yesterday was ended on 11, when he was bowled by Gloucestershire’s Benny Howell, once of Hampshire and our only French-born player

So, there you are then: the first time ever that a (literally) one day Hampshire player was bowled by a French-born former Hampshire player on a Bank Holiday Sunday in Derby. I’ll make sure Bob Murrell adds this to his records book.

I hope you’ll forgive a short digression to Gloucestershire – I’ve just heard that David Allen has died. In the beautiful summer of 1959 (age nine), I played ‘proper’ school cricket for the first time, saw my first county match and towards the end of the season learned that a man with the same name as me had been selected for the Fifth Test Match v India. In the event he didn’t play (injured) but he was in the side the following Caribbean winter and played almost 40 times for England.

Not surprisingly I followed his career with more than the usual interest. He did the double in 1961 and I saw him (and ‘Shack’) when I first went to a Test (Oval 1963) and again the following year in a county match at Bramall Lane. Later I saw him play against Hampshire.

I met him briefly twice – once when he was adjudicating Man of the Match at Northlands Road and once in an Old England XI at Hambledon’s Bat & Ball. I was due to meet him again as our guest speaker at the Hambledon Club Lunch in October but now he won’t be coming and another significant bit of my childhood moves into the past. RIP David

Bank Holiday Sunday and around 11,000 people in Durham have watched the home side humiliated over 50 overs while another couple of thousand in Middlesex have seen their side walloped by an increasingly impressive Hampshire side. In both cases there was hope at the halfway stage but there again it’s so often the hope that ‘kills’ you. I’m delighted for Hampshire (and Morgan apart, at least Carberry was no worse than anyone else) but as matches these were largely two non-events – as matches they were limited overs cricket at its worst.

Never mind – well played Hampshire (again)

PS: On run-rate, Hampshire are tonight top of their T20 table.

PPS: Apparently 99 was England’s lowest ODI total for over 10 years. Following the winter it’s not surprising that the media are carrying stories that grounds are struggling to sell tickets for this year’s England matches.