Hampshire Cricket History

I was getting ready to note that the last time Sunderland won a Wembley Cup Final 1-0 was in 1973 – and you know what happened in that cricket season. Now I’m not sure if it’s an omen. In 1939 Hampshire were rubbish; in 2008 we finished third in Div One.

Meanwhile at Oxford, we’ve learned that Vince & Northeast are very good first-class batsmen, Rilee still doesn’t get the first-class runs he should, Weatherley & Soames perhaps don’t look ready, and Dawson should probably bat higher. I think we knew all that this morning.

Weatherley, short of runs pre-season has gone cheaply, Vince is clearly opening with Aiden to come. Soames at three – is that in preference to Donald or could there be an injury? Similarly Berg seems to be in ahead of Fuller, or our possible ‘Yank at Oxford’ – and no Mason Crane either, but the other Kyle is back (with the other Kyle, but not the other one).

PS !! https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/47764915

We’ve chatted on here previously about the fact that Hampshire are the only county side ever to have won a match at Hornsey – simply because only one Championship match was ever played there – in the blazing hot summer of 1959 – and we won it by two wickets, scoring at about four-and-a-half runs per over. Jimmy Gray scored 155 & 49, while Fred Titmus scored 50 & 62 and took three wickets.

Colin Price, our London correspondent and expert all things topographical around the metropolis has sent a couple of photos of the ground (and one other interesting picture which will follow). Many thanks.

After which, back to today and I suspect a very chilly outing in the Parks

Today’s Guardian reports that The Ageas Bowl Hundred Side (guess the name …*) are interested in Shane Warne as Coach, although Jason Gillespie is another possibility.

I guess whoever it is can’t claim prior experience in that format. It’s an interesting choice given that SW has been widely reported in the past as suggesting that a cricket coach is  a thing with wheels that takes the players to the ground.

*I suppose ABHS could be an anagram for BASH? (As if I cared)

At our first team, with as Michael says, Markram an international opener and Vince due to open. I guess Northeast, Rossouw and Dawson are certainties and it looks like Tom is the preferred ‘keeper’ which probably leaves one batting place between Weatherley, Donald and Soames. Might be that the University match will be important (but should it be?)

And the bowlers? Perm four (five?) from Edwards, Abbott, Barker, Fuller, Berg & Crane (plus Dawson)

PS Holland?

Weds evening: Terry Crump presents Joe Weatherley with the annual Olive Ford award for the best uncapped player (2018)

used to bowl a lot of Maidens, but we’ve just signed our first (ever) Aiden:

Aiden Markram (he is incidentally another Kyle – AKM)

17 Tests: 1,358 runs average 43.80, four x 100s (HS 152)

58 first-class matches, 4,102 runs average 43.63, ten x 100s (HS 182)

18 ODIs, 503 runs, average 29.58

48 List A matches, 1,925 runs, average 42.77, six x 100s (HS 183)

He bowls a bit in white balls, he’s 24 and he’s another good-looking, charming Libran

I just finished the previous post and read Paul’s comment. What do you guys know that I don’t (and Kevan didn’t yesterday)?

PS Apologies, just spotted the answer (Andy – thanks). It seems a great shame to me. I left the Forum with about two minutes to go, to trundle my books for sale downstairs to catch leavers, so I didn’t hear that – and I hadn’t heard previously. I wonder whether it will particularly affect people who listen on the ground?

To a radio station near you.

Emily Windsor & Kevan James yesterday, arranging the schedules for ball-by-ball starting next week (I’m included). I was a bit unclear about Ian’s Comment on the previous post – unless he does not have access to the necessary technology to follow commentaries**. Not only is everything continuing this season, home-and-away but there will be live video streams too. Now I’ll really have to concentrate!

Incidentally my wife Lou has never approved of my tendency to lapse into a Pompey accent mush, and even more so since somebody tweeted Kevan last season likening me to Mike Read … I’m working on it, but might lapse in front of the telly for a couple of hours on Sunday afternoon!

**See next post. I’ve just caught up … 

Here’s the BBC Forum Panel in action tonight. Were you there? Did you listen live on the radio? I took no notes, but I’ll be interested if you think my observations below are accurate.

My first observation is that a lot of the forum was devoted to discussing the Hundred (16.4?); I would suggest perhaps at least one third, maybe more. I don’t suppose it has ever happened before that so much time (%) has been devoted to discussing a form of the game that does not exist, has never been played competitively anywhere, and won’t be played in the forthcoming season (ostensibly the main topic of the forum).

Secondly, Rod Bransgrove was quite bullish about it and I thought very clear. As I recall and understood him, he stressed that the new competition is not aimed at traditional ‘red-ball’ fans and he mentioned the matter of age, as well as talking about ‘mums & kids’. I thought this was helpful. It seemed to be pretty much what the ECB said in the early days, but recently it has tried to backtrack and appear to be more inclusive. I never believed that shift so, while I don’t agree with the substance of what Rod said, I welcome his honesty

There was a comment from the floor fearing that the new competition would threaten further the four-day fixture list. Rod reported that (other?) County Chairmen did their best to protect the Championship, while seeming to imply that he favoured a reduction in four-day cricket.

Finally the panel was asked about whether players like James Vince might go off and play in (say) Manchester or Leeds for the Hundred. James agreed but said he’d rather play at Hampshire – who knows? Rod did not see this as a problem citing those occasions when James or Mason (for example) go off and play for another team – citing England – and then return to Hampshire. I couldn’t see how going from county to country and back was the equivalent of going from Hampshire to the Northern Nightmares and back.

I don’t share Rod’s views and I fear his brave new world will lead eventually to a form of professional cricket which, if I’m still around, won’t interest me. But I like him, we get on fine while disagreeing about most cricketing things, and I’m grateful that he was absolutely straight, which is not something we might say about the ECB. Further, I don’t kid myself that any views I might hold are any more significant than what I think about Brexit.

Three photos from Press day this afternoon. First up, everyone

Then the players

And finally – with an archive collection of HCCC teams going back to 1883 at the Antelope, here’s a first!