Hampshire Cricket History

Hampshire v Leicestershire Saturday 7, Monday 9, Tuesday 10 June 1958

Leicestershire 133 (Watson 46, Heath 5-43, Shackleton 4-25) & 84 (Shackleton 5-36, Heath 4-24) lost to Hampshire 134 (Goodwin 5-57) & 84-1 (Gray 48*) by 9 wkts.

Hampshire came to Cowes having won just two of their first eight matches which was a concern to their new young captain who had asked his team to “entertain or perish”.

Leicestershire batted first and reached 82-1 with Willie Watson scoring 46 and Hallam 39 before Shackleton and Heath bowled them out. Hampshire lost wickets regularly but took a one-run lead with seven wickets down. They failed to add to that but on a wicket of uneven bounce Leicestershire struggled again. Maurice Hallam scored 32 but in 52 overs Leicestershire could leave only a small target of 84 to win.

Gray who had top-scored with 32 in the first innings was firm again with 48* and Hampshire claimed the extra half-hour to win in two days. Hampshire won six and drew two matches in the following weeks, chased Surrey for the title and, despite a disappointing end to the season, finished as runners-up – their best ever position.

Hampshire: Marshall, Gray, Horton, Pitman, Ingleby-Mackenzie (c), Harrison, Sainsbury, Shackleton, Cannings, Heath.

The England & Wales Cricket Board have confirmed that their new competition in 2020 will be 100 balls a side. The format will be made up of ten 10-ball overs, which can be bowled by one or two bowlers, in clutches of either five or 10 consecutive balls.

 COWES 1957 and a starring role for our senior Blogger

Hampshire v Nottinghamshire, Saturday 22, Monday 24, Tuesday 25 June 1957

 Hampshire 286-5 dec (Marshall 107, Horton 114) & 167-5 dec (Rayment 80 ) beat Nottinghamshire 259 (Giles 101, Shackleton 7-81) & 114 (Shackleton 6-64) by 80 runs

Saturday was wet with only two hours play possible yet Hampshire scored 178-2 with Marshall second out for 107 with the score at 148. Their innings lasted just 78 overs with another fine island performance by Horton. For Nottinghamshire, Giles batted well first wicket down and he and Clay took Nottinghamshire to 136-2 but Shackleton took wickets regularly and only a last wicket stand of 32 kept the visitors in touch. Hampshire scored quickly again on the Tuesday morning and set Nottinghamshire 195 to win in 130 minutes. Nottinghamshire made a brave effort to win until they lost their ninth wicket at 104 after which Smales and Millman resisted for forty minutes until, with just ten minutes remaining, Sainsbury held a magnificent catch and Hampshire had won.

Hampshire: Marshall, Gray, Horton, Rayment, Barnard, Sainsbury, Ingleby-Mackenzie, Harrison, Shackleton, Heath, Burden

There was a break in the visits – at least by the full county side – after 1939 until a Saturday 17 years later, and a different venue, JS White’s Ground at Cowes, opened some three years earlier.

Hampshire v Worcestershire – Saturday 26, Monday 28 & Tuesday 29 May 1956

Hampshire 370-7 dec (Ingleby-Mackenzie 130*, H. Horton 93, Jenkins 4-90) drew with Worcestershire 196 (M. Horton 70, Dews 50, Shackleton 4-45) & following on 305-8 (Outschoorn 154*, Shackleton 3-58)

Hampshire came to Cowes early in the season, having won two Championship matches and two other first-class games, as well as dominating the other drawn match with Kent. For the first two days it appeared that they would maintain this excellent start, which replicated their form of 1956. This had been built partly on excellent catching but on the third day at Cowes they missed a number of chances and Worcestershire recovered from 77-4 to draw the match.

Hampshire scored their runs at better than three-and-a-half each over, a good rate in those days and despite losing Marshall and Gray for 44. Horton batted well against his former county. Ingleby-Mackenzie came in at 171-5 and hit his undefeated 130 out of 199 runs added. By contrast Worcestershire’s innings closed in the 90^th over but opener ‘Laddie’ Outschoorn followed his first innings ‘duck’ with a fine undefeated innings and Martin Horton batted well again to save the game.

Portsmouth-born amateur David Blake kept wicket for Hampshire. Alan Rayment was a Londoner who had come to the county after playing for Middlesex 2^nd XI but he had spent regular boyhood summer holidays with his uncle on the Isle of Wight and had once won a fishing competition in Ryde, sponsored by the News of the World.

Hampshire: Marshall, Gray, Horton, Rayment, Blake, Barnard, Ingleby-Mackenzie, Eagar (c), Shackleton, Heath, Burden

And the cricket ain’t easy – at least not the Championship

You can find the fixtures on the club’s website so just to confirm, there are two home matches in the first half of April and two from 10 September.

The other three consist of the trip to the IOW (Notts) in late May and two in 10 days in mid-July

So that’s no Championship cricket at the Ageas Bowl for about eight weeks through May/June, and a similar gap from mid July to mid-September. I’m not yet clear whether Basingstoke figures in any of that. There is of course a great deal of other sorts of cricket to be played there in those gaps.

The Isle of Wight that is – this morning it’s just the mournful sound of foghorns in the Solent. But back in 1939:

Hampshire v Middlesex: Saturday 24, Monday 26, Tuesday 27 June –

Middlesex 261 (Edrich 118, Boyes 5-45) beat Hampshire 93 (Smith 6-23) & following on, 143 (Peebles 4-23) by an innings and 25 runs

Saturday’s play was spoiled by rain with Middlesex closing on 41-1. Fast bowler Giles Baring, dismissed Brown for one but Robertson and Edrich then added 173 on the first two days. The remaining batsmen could not capitalise on this start as Stuart Boyes took five wickets but Hampshire fared worse and were 69-5 on Monday evening. They lost their remaining wickets before lunch and followed on 168 behind. McCorkell (24) and Bailey (37) made a better start to their second innings but Bailey was run out and they lost all ten wickets for just 98 to suffer a heavy defeat. Len Creese with 30 and 34 was Hampshire’s most consistent batsman.

Then Adolf Hitler came along, and Hampshire’s visits to Newport came to an end.

The side in 1938 had been: McCorkell, Paris (c), Walker, Aird, Pothecary, Heath, Boyes, MacKenzie, Herman, Knott, Creese. In 1939 it was McCorkell, Bailey, Holt, Arnold, Creese, Pothecary, MacKenzie, Hill, Boyes, Taylor (c), Baring.

The Hampshire captain GR Taylor was a Winchester solicitor who appeared regularly only in 1939, batting with the tail and not bowling. Donald ‘Hooky’ Walker was killed in a bombing raid a couple of years into the war.

The view at midday (below) from the southern shore of Portsea Island across the Solent to the IOW where we’ll all be going (?) next May. Lots of enquiries this morning now the news is imminent, so this week, a day-by-day history of Hampshire on the IOW starting before the war at the old Newport ground:

Hampshire v Northamptonshire: Saturday 20, Monday 22, Tuesday 23 August 1938

Northamptonshire 195 (James 74, Herman 6-63) & 119 (Brookes 42, Boyes 6-40) lost to Hampshire 250 (Boyes 104, Pothecary 59, Partridge 5-64) & 69-3 (McCorkell 32*) by seven wickets

Stuart Boyes from Southampton, took more than 1400 wickets for Hampshire between 1921-1939 and he enjoyed his two games on the island although ‘Lofty’ Herman was the first to damage Northamptonshire’s hopes. Their wicketkeeper James managed the recovery from 17-3 and the eighth wicket reached 50 but Hampshire were batting on the Saturday evening. They too struggled, closing at 49-4 and nightwatchman Heath was dismissed early on Monday but Boyes and Pothecary then added 124, Boyes making his best score, and one of only two centuries for Hampshire. He was soon bowling and his six wickets ensured a small winning target and took him to his hundred wickets for the season. Hampshire’s captain Cecil Paris reversed the order and they lost Herman and Boyes but McCorkell saw them home.

Sri Lanka are coming to the end of their 24th consecutive Test Match without a draw – and for England it’s number 19. This places Sri Lanka second-highest in the list and England third equal, with five of the top six having occurred in this century.

But the extraordinary overall record is 87 matches by Australia between 1882/3-1946/7; and shortly after that they clocked up 13 more through to 1952/3. In those two periods they won 65 and lost 38.

(All on Sky this morning)

In the matter of who might be the next coach, it was interesting to see ‘votes’ for one of our ex-players ‘Dimi’, but not I think for one of his team-mates, Nic Pothas who has been coaching all over the world since he left Hampshire. He has a claim to be considered the finest of all our batsmen-wicketkeepers but lost his place to a promising young chap called Bates (remember him?). Well I guess we can’t have Nic now, because he has just been promoted to the senior coaching role with the West Indies. Well done him.

I do my best to avoid politics on here but as a retired academic I am perhaps particularly sympathetic to the UK academic who has been imprisoned in the UAE for life (today) for spying, after a five-minute trial in a language he doesn’t speak, without his lawyer present.

The ECB has the England Lions side in the UAE at present playing against Pakistan. I wonder whether the ECB will and/or should respond to this situation? I wonder too whether any English players are involved in the T10 competition that began there today.