A-Z R3

A-Z R3

April 24, 2018, 10:00 am
Filed under: Uncategorized

(I missed a Star Wars joke with the last one. Should have published it on Friday week)

I’ve now done a proof-read of the A-Z but it doesn’t mean we can’t have further thoughts and additions on the Blog. When the book is out, I’ll publish on here a full list of further changes and amendments.

Remnant, Ernest Richard (141) born Croydon 1.5.1881, died Harrow 18.3.1969. He was an all-rounder, bowling slow-left-arm, whose father GH, played in 42 matches for Kent. He made his first-class debut for Hampshire in May 1908 and played regularly through to 1921, with the exceptions of 1910, when he played only twice, and 1919 when he was still stationed in India. His first-class career, ended in early June 1922 after four matches in that final year. He scored his one first-class century, 115*, v Kent at Southampton in 1911 but played most often in the two seasons before the war. He was said to be a happy cricketer who would often sing as he ran in to bowl, and that might have worked particularly well in his last full season, 1921, when he took 46 wickets at 23.89 (38 in the Championship), including 8-61 at Colchester. He ended his career for Hampshire with 2,843 runs at 17.33 and 170 wickets at 27.35.

Renshaw, Simon John (432) born Cheshire 6.3.1974. He was a pace bowler and useful lower-order batsman who played for Northamptonshire and Essex 2^nd XIs, Cheshire and the Combined Universities (York University), before joining Hampshire, where he played in first-class and limited-overs cricket from 1996-2000. He played for the county most often in 1997 & 1999 with a best bowling season of 1997, taking 37 wickets at 34.54. In that year, he played in 25 of his 49 limited-overs matches – overall there were 62 wickets, with a best of 6-25 v Surrey, again in 1997 – while in first-class cricket he took 91 wickets for Hampshire. In 2000, he played more often for the 2^nd XI and captained Hampshire v Glamorgan 2^nd XI in the first match played on the main Rose Bowl ground. He left Hampshire at the end of that season, playing for some years for Kibworth CC in Leicestershire.

Riazuddin, Hamza (492) born Hendon, 19.12.1989. He was a medium-pace bowling all-rounder who attended Bradfield College and played for England under-19s in 2008/9, by which time he had already made his first-class debut for Hampshire in one match v Somerset in May 2008. In the next two seasons, there were just two more matches against university sides, and then a run of four Championship matches in 2012 and one final first-class game v Loughborough University in 2013. In first-class cricket, he scored one half-century v Loughborough University in 2012, with best bowling of 5-61 (and 12*) as Hampshire won a tight game v Glamorgan by two wickets. He played more regularly in limited-overs cricket with 27 matches and 19 wickets, and 17 x T20 matches with 21 wickets, including 4-15 v the Windward Islands. Since leaving Hampshire he has played principally for Falkland in the Thames Valley League.

Rice, John Michael (364) born Chandler’s Ford, Hants 23.10.1949. All-rounder John Rice was born in Hampshire, but raised in Surrey and was briefly on their groundstaff before moving to Hampshire in 1971, where he became a very flexible player, sometimes opening the bowling and sometimes the batting. He played in nine first-class matches in both 1971 & 1972, but there was just one Sunday League match in the Championship year of 1973 and a quiet season in 1974, before he established himself in 1975. In first-class cricket that year, he averaged 22.10 with the bat, and took 49 wickets at 26.65, but he made an even more important contribution to Hampshire’s first Sunday League title – in all limited-overs matches that year he took 38 wickets at 13.86 at an economy rate below 3.5, and on a Sunday v Northamptonshire took 5-14 including Hampshire’s first Sunday League ‘hat-trick’, then in the decisive match at Darley Dale, he took 4-14. In 1976, with Gordon Greenidge on tour he opened the batting in some Championship matches, while in the following year, his best bowling figures were 7-48 v Worcestershire, and in 1978 he played again in the Hampshire side that won the Sunday League v Middlesex at Bournemouth. In the first three years of the 1980s he took just 11 first-class wickets, becoming more important as a batsman, following the departures of Richards and Gilliat, and in 1981 he scored his two first-class centuries in consecutive matches. In the first at Hove he came in to face the second ball after opener Tim Tremlett was run out without facing from the first, and ‘carried’ his bat for 101*. Then he went to Edgbaston and scored 161*. Rice was also a fine slip fielder with 153 catches in 168 first-class matches, and his all-round skills and positive disposition seemed to fit him for a coaching career. He scored 777 runs in 1982 but was not re-engaged when in sight of a benefit, and he succeeded Vic Cannings as coach at Eton College, until he retired. He also worked closely with Barry Reed for some years coaching Hampshire’s Colts and under-19 sides, helping to develop players including Chris Tremlett and Jimmy Adams.

Richards, Arthur Carew (107, Amateur) born Grays, Essex 20.2.1865, died Nottingham 29.11.1930. He was a batsman and slow bowler who played for Eton, and made his first-class debut, in August 1884, playing consecutive matches v Sussex (scoring 40, taking 3-45) and Somerset (47). There were no more wickets, and while he played some non-first-class games for the county, and for MCC, he did not play again until one match in each of 1903 and 1904, scoring a total of 11 runs.

Richards, Barry Anderson (357) born Durban, South Africa 21.7.1945. Barry Richards signed for Hampshire under the new instant registration rule in 1968 and when he left mid-way through the 1978 season he had played in 204 first-class matches for the county, scoring 15,607 first-class runs at 50.50. Only CB Fry, who played in just 44 matches, has a higher average for Hampshire (58.90) but those figures can only suggest, without revealing, the quality of Richards’ batting – some consider him the finest natural batsman who ever played for the county. John Arlott (1979) began a brief appreciation of him by stating quite simply, “Barry Richards is a great batsman”. Few who saw him, would dissent from that view, yet unlike the majority of ‘great’ players, he achieved what he did, despite his immense frustrations at being largely excluded from Test cricket for political reasons, and despite admitting frequent boredom with the treadmill of county cricket in those days. There were times when he seemed less than fully engaged, but on others he was a batsman of astonishing skill and elegance.

He played in just one Test series, in South Africa v Australia in 1969/70, when he scored 29, 37, 140, 65, 35, 81 & 126 – an average of 47.50 – while in November 1970, he scored 356 in 372 minutes for South Australia v Western Australia (with four Test bowlers). That was his one season playing domestic cricket in Australia although he spent some English winters playing at home for Natal, for whom he first played in 1964. At Hampshire, he had a slightly hesitant start, but then scored over 2,000 runs in the first season, including 206 v Nottinghamshire, whose attack was led by Garry Sobers. For his performances in 1968, he was nominated as one of Wisden’s Cricketers of the Year. It sometimes seemed that context and opposition motivated him; in August 1972, in a quarter-final v ‘one-day kings’ Lancashire he scored 129 in a losing cause, with the next highest score 28; in 1973, with a title to win, there were four Championship centuries (240 at Coventry) yet perhaps his finest display came in a low-scoring match between first-place (Hampshire) and second (Northamptonshire) at Southampton. After Hampshire dismissed their opponents for 108, Richards scored 45, resisting the wiles of Bishen Bedi (6-69) in securing a lead of 59, then, needing just 90 to win, Bedi took two more wickets as Hampshire fell to 16-2 and 49-3, but Richards, with 37*, took them to the key victory.

As Champions, they opened the following season with the then traditional match at Lord’s v MCC, and on a freezing April day, Richards scored 189, dismissed with the score 249-6, in an astonishing display, which ASR Winlaw (Daily Telegraph) described as “full of grace and majesty”. In 1975 Jeff Thomson led the Australian attack at Southampton and Richards scored 96 (of 156-2) and 69, retired hurt. It sometimes seemed he had a point to prove. There might be many more facts and figures, but Richards’ quality went beyond that. He reached 1,000 runs for Hampshire in every season from 1968-1976 and played in the two Sunday League title-winning sides of 1975 and 1978, but by the latter he had had enough. He played a Championship match at Leicester in late June 1978, and in July four limited-overs games, including another last one at Leicester and then he was gone. He was no longer motivated to play county cricket, perhaps affected by the artificial, but nonetheless challenging World Series matches in Australia, in which he averaged 79.14. The end was very sad for Hampshire fans, but the memories are indelible. When he was not batting, he was a very fine slip fielder, with 264 catches in 204 matches, one of the county’s highest percentages, and he could bowl off-spin very effectively although rarely inclined to do so; he took 46 wickets at 36.41 for Hampshire with a best of 7-63 v a Rest of the World side. He played in South Africa for a few more years, became an intelligent commentator, and returned to Hampshire as their President from 2007-2009,

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