Hampshire Cricket History

with the England squad for Friday. Does that mean he cannot play tomorrow and – rather more importantly – if not selected, can he play in the CHAMPIONSHIP next Sunday?

You will realise how keen I am to leave tradition behind and move with, indeed ahead of the times. I have discovered in a box at home what I believe to be the earliest recorded evidence of me as a cricketer, hinting at a number of innovations

I think this is probably August 1955, a great year for Hampshire (3rd place for the first time) and obviously a key one for me. You note that I was already keen on getting the girls to play, and my sister is anticipating the Dilshan scoop shot over my head.

Sadly, I didn’t make it as a wicketkeeper, but I showed Ian Botham how to stand at slip. I am however, disappointed that my attempts to replace caps with clowns’ hats (to the left of me and the right) never caught on.

Neither apparently did my preference for a fag* while ‘keeping’.

*That’s ‘fag’ as in Pompey, rather than Eton. And incidentally if this was my ‘debut’ it’s in Chesterfield, Derbyshire (on holiday) not Hampshire.

Moeen Ali wants to be thought of as a England’s second spinner, but having taken wickets with the fifth and sixth balls of the over, Mike Atherton kept telling us (courtesy of ‘Hampshire’s’ Richard Isaacs) as Stokes bowled, that the last England off-spinner to take a Test Match hat-trick was Gloucestershire’s Tom Godard just before the war.

Then Moeen finished the game to become the first man to take a Test hat-trick at the Oval and also the first to complete it with a Review to the TV umpire!

Incidentally England’s ‘first’ spinner Liam Dawson was on the field before lunch.

The Times reports that Somerset’s rain-soaked victory over Sussex yesterday was the 17th consecutive T20 match sold out at Taunton – and that follows the game at Lord’s last Thursday that had a bigger crowd than the Oval Test. You can see why we need another T20 competition, can’t you? As a consequence of that game, Hampshire slip a place to 4th, but it’s so tight that any of the nine sides could still qualify.

This week? Any 2nd XI cricket to keep up with, and justify my new CricHQ account?

Good story about Felix Organ from

http://www.vimpsatthecrease.com/

One of the games we chatted about last night was the Oval Test Match of 1963 against the West Indies – the first Test Match I saw live, and ‘Shack’s’ last. He had replaced Brian Statham as Fred Trueman’s opening partner for Tests two, three and four, but now Statham was back and ‘Shack’ bowled first change. The two England innings were worth 275 & 223, yet apart from Brian Close in the second, all the top seven got into double figures twice, although only Phil Sharpe with 63 and 83, reached fifty (Close passed 40 in the first innings).

In what would be seen today as a low-scoring match, England led West Indies by 29 on first innings, but with Fred Trueman injured after bowling just one over, the tourists won easily on 255-2. Opening batsman Conrad Hunte scored 80 (‘Shack’s’ final Test victim) and 108*.

The commentators today are discussing the likely target that England will set and as usual, listing highest fourth innings totals on the ground. In all first-class matches, the top spot is more than a century ago, but in second place is Surrey’s score v Hampshire in 2007 – do you remember that one?

Hampshire 481-9 dec with 80s from Adams and Pothas (not out) & 224-1 dec (Michael Brown 115*) beat Surrey 203 (Warne 5-45) & 467 (Batty 121, Salisbury, 103, Udal 4-138) by 35 runs. Salisbury and Mahmood put on 177 for Surrey’s 8th wicket

A beautiful song by Scott Walker, featured on Friday night’s Proms, and lasting longer than most games over this miserable weekend. On Friday and Saturday six T20s were abandoned or no result, one got a result from seven overs each and Hampshire won from the dressing room, by D/L

I spent yesterday afternoon and evening at a birthday party, just down the road from Lord’s. The plan was outdoors/barbecue etc and since the birthday boy Kurt (65) is originally from Trinidad and had invited his old Caribbean undergraduate pals, that could have been lively – but boy did it rain and (with the Test in mind) it was still raining as we drove back through south-west London approaching 11pm.

The conversations were good though. two of the guys had been club cricketers from Barbados, so I was introduced and we talked of Everton Weekes in Southampton (246 in 1950), and of course of a a couple of Marshalls, Gordon etc. One of the guys told a lovely tale of bowling while still a schoolboy, to Sobers, already a Test cricketer, in a club game. He bowled off-breaks, so figured he’d trap the great (left-handed) man behind his legs. The ball pitched a bit short and didn’t turn much, but instead of pulling/sweeping in front of his legs, Sobers waited for it to pass and hit it behind him, between his legs and the stumps! Cue lots of laughter, then and yesterday, although I suspect his wife had heard the tale once or twice.

Final weather thought: after weeks of fine Saturdays, the local leagues are dissolving. Very sad.

PS (3 pm): Rain delay at Taunton (v Sussex) and raining in the Test Match.

It comes as something of a surprise to learn that Toby Roland-Jones was the first English bowler with a double-barrelled surname to take a Test wicket in any of our lifetimes. Before Toby, the last one was the legendary George Simpson-Hayward in 1910.

Has there ever been a double-barrelled Aussie?

He batted quite nicely, but his first over went for 18 and he’s been knocked out of two record partnerships – Hampshire’s first wicket which is now 85 and Gloucestershire’s 6th wicket of 69*. A third record already tonight is Klinger’s century – the first for Gloucs v Hampshire, but Hampshire are nicely placed approaching halfway.

It’s almost 7pm and there’s nothing from the online commentary. The online information is that the match is delayed but there will be an inspection at 6.30pm. Is that 6.30pm tomorrow?

Of course the moment I posted that, it changed. Play to start at 7.15pm.