A-Z (H14)

February 10, 2018, 2:50 pm
Filed under: Uncategorized

Just four more today but a couple of very interesting/important names:

Holmes, Henry (Pre ’95) born Romsey 11.11.1833, died Southampton 6.1.1913. Holmes was a medium pace round-arm bowler, useful batsman and occasional wicketkeeper, who played for Hampshire before the formation of the County Cricket Club, and then in 27 of their first 28 first-class matches from 1864-1878 (there were also five matches for five other first-class sides). His appearances included Hampshire County Cricket Club’s inaugural first-class match in July 1864 v Sussex at the Antelope Ground and in his publication about that game Alan Edwards (2014) described Holmes as “one of the unsung heroes of Hampshire cricket”.

This was despite a relatively modest career record. For the county club he scored 692 runs at 15.04 and 22 wickets at 22.90, but Edwards describes him as a “cricketer of considerable ability” including being an accomplished and versatile fielder. He had played for Wiltshire, and was professional at the Southampton Union Club, the East Hants Club in Southsea, then the South Hants Club in the mid-1860s, but circumstances determined that he was in his thirties when the match v Sussex took place – he took two wickets in a 10 wicket defeat. In the return later that season, he made his highest score for the county, 71, and took part in Hampshire’s first century partnership, while in 1876 he took 5-57, his best bowling, at Derby. In 1877 Holmes began another phase of his cricketing life as a first-class umpire; this continued until he was 65 in 1899 – he stood in the match when Yorkshire’s openers set the first wicket world record of 554 at Chesterfield in 1898, by which time he had also been Hampshire’s groundsman. In later years he played cricket at the Totton Club, but he was also involved in some rather odd ‘incidents’, described in detail by Edwards who suggests he was “independent (and) … sometimes pig-headed”. He was certainly interesting!

Holt, Arthur George (275) born Southampton 8.4.1911, died Southampton 28.7.1994. Arthur Holt was not so much solidly a Hampshire man as one of Southampton, for whom he played with some success at football, scoring 46 goals in 206 league matches through the 1930s. As a cricketer, he played for the county’s youth side and the Deanery Club before joining Hampshire’s staff in 1934 and making his debut at 24 in 1935. He took some time to make an impression; centuries at Leicester (117) and Edgbaston in 1938 & 1939 helped, but then like many others he lost six seasons to the war – in his case from the age of 29.

There would be no more centuries, but his return in 1946 brought his most consistent season with 891 runs at 24.75. Gradually however, younger batsmen like Rogers, Dawson, Gray and Harrison began to establish themselves and Holt’s last first-class match came at Worthing in 1948 – a season of just 218 runs and one half century. He left first class cricket with a record of 2,853 runs in 79 matches at 22.46, and one wicket – of the Warwickshire captain Peter Cranmer in the same 1939 match that he scored 115. If that was his tale, he would be another unlucky cricketer with a modest record, but fate took a hand when the Hampshire coach Sam Staples was taken ill and Desmond Eagar saw Arthur Holt as the obvious replacement. It was a fortuitous appointment and over the next two decades, ‘Holt’s Colts’ included Sainsbury, Heath, Barnard, Wassell, White, Timms, Castell, Cottam, Jesty, Lewis, Turner and Greenidge, as he, Eagar and others built the two sides that brought the Championship to Hampshire. More than that, he gave opportunities to many young cricketers to test themselves in his youth, Club & Ground and 2nd XI teams, and he took sides around the county, as ambassadors for the county club, playing against the local clubs. He did all this with a smile and great good humour and is still remembered with great affection. With good reason, the pavilion on the Nursery/2nd XI ground at the Ageas Bowl is named in his honour.

Hopkins, Frank Jesse (known as Jesse) (129) born Birmingham 30.6.1875, died Southampton 15.1.1930. Hopkins was a left-arm medium pace bowler who took 25 wickets in 11 first-class matches for his native Warwickshire (1898-1903) but then moved to Southampton and became the groundsman at Northlands Road. He played in two first-class matches for Hampshire in 1906 and one more in 1911, but his record was modest, with 12 runs at 4.00 and four wickets at 43.75. He was nonetheless a loyal member of the Hampshire staff; before the war he declined an invitation to move to Lord’s as groundsman, and as late as 1925, age 50, he was supervising the boys on the groundstaff.

Horton, Henry (326) born Herefordshire 18.4.1923, died recorded as both Birmingham and Colwall, 3.11.1998. Henry Horton was the archetypal professional sportsman of the mid-twentieth century. He played football for Blackburn Rovers from 1946-1950 before moving to Southampton for whom he played 75 matches from 1951-1953. By then he had played cricket as an amateur, then professionally for Worcestershire, where his older brother Joe played before the war. Henry’s career with his first county was not a success; he averaged under 10, with a best of 21, and in 1949 turned his back on the summer game.

When he arrived in Southampton, however, he met Arthur Holt (above) who was linked to both clubs, and Arthur eventually persuaded Henry to return to cricket. In May 1953 he scored 99 in a non first-class match for Hampshire v the Army, and a couple of weeks later made his Championship debut, scoring 49 v Leicestershire at Portsmouth, already a month past his 30th birthday. He would play for Hampshire into his mid-40s but it is extraordinary to consider that despite this very late start, he scored 21,536 runs, placing him sixth in the list of all-time run scorers for the county (average 32.83 with 32 centuries).

More than that, from 1955, Horton, Jimmy Gray and Roy Marshall formed as good a top three as was to be found anywhere in the Championship, and their contributions to third place that year, second in 1958 and the title in 1961 were considerable. Horton passed 1,000 runs for 13 consecutive seasons from 1955 and from 1959-1961, over 2,000 runs. In the ‘batsman’s summer’ of 1959, he averaged 47.60 and while he had a reputation of being somewhat dour – with a rather odd stance – Jimmy Gray would suggest that in second innings run-chases, he as likely to win the game as the more illustrious Roy Marshall. Perhaps surprisingly he never reached 150 in a Championship match. He played in the early years of knock out cricket, with two half-centuries in 13 matches.

Henry Horton was the bravest of cricketers in the days with minimal protection, no helmets, and some lively pitches, especially on outgrounds. He played less often in 1967, and then retired to become a coach with Worcestershire, and a first-class umpire from 1973-1976.

PS: Been to the Bat & Ball today – not really cricket weather!

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