Hampshire Cricket History

Maybe – but I wish you all health and happiness. Paul (thank you) has sent a Telegraph link (below) suggesting the imminent end of five-day Test cricket as we move into a decade which I really begin to fear might finally finish off first-class cricket. We shall see.

It was a strange decade for Hampshire. They began with three white ball trophies (and relegation) in the first three years, but won only one more cup, in 2018, although there was the Div 2 title and promotion in 2014.

Since then they’ve kept their place in Div One albeit sometimes more by luck than performance but they’ve never challenged once for the County Championship title – the only full decade since the war when that was the case (1955, 1958, 1961, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1985, 1990, 2005) although the 1990s were mostly a big disappointment. On the other hand, they did finish 3rd last season without ever being in contention, so maybe they can improve on that in 2020?

PS Initial link didn’t want to work so a different Paul (see Comments) has sent this one

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/28394321/icc-consider-mandatory-four-day-tests

Very few played much cricket and only a couple before Greenidge received their knighthoods specifically for cricket (Lacey & Roberts)

Dr Sir Henry William Russell BENCRAFT

Sir Evelyn Ridley BRADFORD

General Sir Reginald Alexander Dallas BROOKS

Sir Alfred Englefield EVANS

Sir Edward Boscawen FREDERICK

Sir Granville George GREENWOOD

Sir Frederick Thomas Arthur HERVEY-BATHURST

Lt Gen Sir Basil Ferguson Burnett HITCHCOCK

Admiral Sir Alan Geoffrey HOTHAM

Sir Walter Coote HEDLEY

Sir Francis Eden LACEY

Admiral Sir George Hamilton D’Oyly LYON

Sir Henry Paulet St John MILDMAY

Sir Henry John MORDAUNT

Sir Henry Meredyth PLOWDEN

Sir Anderson Montgomery Everton ROBERTS

Major-General Sir Herbert STEWART

Sir William Henry Marsham STYLE

Sir Matthew WOOD

By England (again) but mainly because when Denly & Stokes were together it had the makings of a very good Test Match – I think that’s unlikely now with England all out, 103 behind and unable to dismiss the nightwatchman this morning.

But I’ve always loved watching Philander bowl, and in that first innings he was fantastic. His figures: 4-16 in 14 overs and two balls. He’s retiring from Test cricket after this series but apparently might join Somerset.

7. v Essex (H) 2014: Hampshire beat Essex by a record 470 runs with James Vince scoring 240 and Will Smith 151*.

8. v Notts (T B) 2015: Hampshire, behind on first innings, won and avoided relegation with Sussex losing at Headingley. They’re still in Div Two (Edwards 10 wickets)

9. v Essex (H) 2017: Essex followed on but won – the second time in Hampshire’s history that’s happened, and both v Essex (1992). Abbott took 6-22.

10. v Somerset (H) 2019: Abbott’s match (you remember) with a record 17-86 – but also centuries for Vince & Dawson, victory for Hampshire (3rd) and Somerset runners-up again.

That’s All Folks! Merry Christmas to you all.

4. v Somerset at Taunton 8/2011: Adams (207) and Carberry (182) set a record with 373 for the 2nd wicket, as Hampshire won by 61 runs. Hampshire scored 627-9 dec.

5. v Essex (Chelmsford) 7/2012: Hampshire equalled their record with a victory by two runs. The key event was in the Essex second innings as young Adam Wheater scored 98 but was then caught with just three needed. It had an impact on him, Hampshire & Michael Bates that stretched way beyond that innings. Adams scored 139 but Tomlinson’s 5-86 won it at the end.

6. v Glamorgan (Cardiff) 9/2014: Another away game but many of us went, to see Hampshire clinch promotion and the Div 2 title. Hampshire won by 291 runs despite a very promising half-century by Aneurin Donald. James Vince (144), Sean Ervine (107), Jimmy Adams (91), Chris Wood (4-42), and James Tomlinson (6-48) were Hampshire’s key men. Up we went with Worcs, while Essex missed out for one more year (since when they have won the Championship twice).

Here begins the list from the Pompey News from this decade:

1. v Somerset (H) May 2010: Sean Ervine’s 237 was and is the highest score by any Hampshire batsman in the bottom half of the order. He added 130 with ‘Tommo’ for the 9th wicket. Buttler’s 144 helped Somerset to 524.
2. v Yorkshire (H) July 2011. The match in which Yorkshire scored 532 after which Carberry (300*) & McKenzie 237 set an all-time, all counties Championship record for the third wicket of 523 (editor’s note: I thought it was one of the worst matches I’ve ever watched! Indeed I gave up after day three).
3. v Warwickshire (Edgbaston) August 2011: Hampshire behind by 109 on first innings (Woakes 64 & 7-20) but won by 209 runs. Vince 145, then Warwicks 98 all out (Wood three wickets, ‘Tommo’ four, Tahir two)

If you are anywhere that it’s possible to buy the Pompey News today there is a two-page feature on the ten best Hampshire matches of the decade (n.b. proper cricket). The headline and main photo of ‘Tommo’ refer to that lovely game in Cardiff in 2014.

Incidentally I know the mathematical logic says that we are not yet about to enter a new decade but it never ‘feels’ right. I am in many respects a product of the 1960s and I’ve always assumed that decade started as soon as the year began 196… I wasn’t waiting for 1961.

I know most of you visit the Hampshire Cricket website – if only to check out the latest news from Beefy’s.

So my question is whether you have ever stumbled across articles by me under the broad theme of ‘From the Archive’, and specifically about topics like our Outgrounds, or Internationals at the R/A Bowl? Have you ever seen a Day-by-Day feature through November/December?

At least some of them are there, and having enquired, I have been sent the link. But however hard I look on the website I can’t see where they are, so I’m wondering, does anyone else see them?

James Vince has been omitted from England’s T20 squad in South Africa, having played in New Zealand. With the T20 World Cup imminent that’s not good news.

I’m very sorry to report that another of our great Champions, Malcolm Heath, has died after a long illness

Heath, Malcolm Brewster (334) born Ferndown, Dorset 9.3.1934. In late August 1949, 15-year-old pace bowler Malcolm Heath played his first Minor Counties Championship match for Hampshire 2nd XI v Wiltshire. His team were so dominant that he did not bowl, but in the following season he played more frequently, and his first wicket was the future Gloucestershire captain, Derrick Bailey. Hampshire have produced very few of ‘their own’ genuine fast bowlers through their history, and while they had a highly effective opening partnership in the 1950s in Shackleton and Cannings, the arrival of Malcolm Heath gave them the edge of pace and lift which other counties enjoyed – although Heath was always the nicest of men; a ‘gentle giant’. He continued to play for the 2nd XI until making his first-class debut age 20, at Leicester in August 1954 and he finished that first season with 17 wickets at 15.41. 1955 was, the marvellous year in which just 13 men, plus Ingleby-Mackenzie in one match, took Hampshire to third place for the first time, and Heath was one of the six local ‘graduates’, all of whom would be there when they went one better in 1958, and then won the title in 1961. Heath contributed 33 wickets at 20.45, and his record was similar in 1956, after which came his best years. In 1957, he took 76 wickets (67 in the Championship) and won his cap. Then came the wet summer of 1958; Hampshire’s and Heath’s finest. He was replacing Vic Cannings as Shackleton’s opening partner by now, and took 126 wickets at 16.42

In that year, he took 6-53 v Gloucestershire at Bristol, 13-86 v Sussex at Portsmouth in the match, including his career best 8-43, and then in the extraordinary game at Burton-on Trent, he and Shackleton bowled unchanged, with Heath’s match figures 13-87. Improbable as it sounds, Hampshire lost by 103 runs, and that probably consigned them to second place rather than the title. 1959 was the season of endless sun, covered wickets and the arrival of the fast, and more aggressive ‘Butch’ White, and Heath’s return of 71 wickets cost more than double his average of 1958. From this point, he was generally selected as first-change, and often came in on the hard Portsmouth wickets, while the spinners played at Bournemouth and elsewhere. Still for the next two seasons he averaged in the mid-20s and his 54 Championship wickets certainly contributed to the first title in 1961. On 22 August, he took 3-42 in an important victory v Leicestershire at Portsmouth, but the left-arm spinner Wassell played in the final three matches, including the historic meeting v Derbyshire at Bournemouth. Heath was less successful in 1962 and struggling with a hip injury, his career ended at the age of just 28. He took 527 first-class wickets for Hampshire at an average of 25.11 – he is 18th in their list of all-time wicket-takers and will probably remain there in today’s reduced programme. His batting was rather more modest – he was a genuine number 11, scoring 569 runs at 5.86 and a best of 33 v Sussex in 1955, although towards the end of the 1961 season, he enjoyed hitting 28 against the Australians at Southampton. In later years, he coached at Lord’s, and played for MCC, and in club cricket in northern England.