Hampshire Cricket History

He’s in the 13-man squad – it’s the 12 from Monday/Tuesday plus him. I imagine then that one of Dale or Currie (at least) will play. Harry has made his debut already of course, at the Oval as our first (but not the first) concussion substitute.

Rules & Regs:

• A reduction to a minimum of 90 overs in a day’s play.
• Each county’s first innings of a match can last no longer than 120 overs.
• The follow-on will increase from 150 to 200 runs.
• The new ball will be available after 90 overs rather than 80 overs.
• Points awarded for a draw will increase from five (in the County Championship) to eight
• All other points scoring will remain the same as in the County Championship, such as 16 points for a win with a maximum of five batting and three bowling bonus points in the first innings.

PS From the website: “Unfortunately Fidel Edwards will not feature for the Club during the 2020 season as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused significant difficulties with the availability of players who do not permanently reside in the UK.

This coupled with the changing status of Kolpak players from the 2021 season, means it’s likely the popular 37 year-old has played his last competitive game for Hampshire. If that’s the case, the fast bowler will return in 2021 for a testimonial match”.

I cycled past Southsea Common this morning and saw the crew putting up the Big Top for the return of the circus from next Tuesday. Seems that social distancing is OK then, inside a tent, but outdoors? Here’s the BBC:

“Fans will not be allowed to attend the pilot sports events scheduled for this weekend in England after a spike in coronavirus cases, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said. Spectators were due to watch the first two days of two county cricket matches while fans were at the World Snooker Championship when it started on Friday. It was also hoped to permit 4,000 racegoers at Goodwood on Saturday. The new restrictions on fans will be enforced until at least 15 August”.

I must apologise then for being rather excited having just heard I’m cleared to join Kevan James to commentate on the match at Hove starting tomorrow. The restrictions are considerable but I’ll hope to share some photos with you on here – and hope that the streaming works!

PS: While tomorrow is of course the latest date on which Hampshire have started their first-class season, it is only by 10 days. In 1870 their initial first-class match was v Lancashire at Old Trafford on 21 July. Other late starts:

30 May 1895 v Somerset at Taunton – first match in the County Championship

9 June 1919 v Middx at Lord’s – back from the War

7 July 1864 v Sussex at the Antelope – our first match as a County Cricket Club

Is a lovely piece of 1970s ‘pop’ by Ace, but equally THE question surely. There he was hitting fours around the ground looking in wonderful nick, got to 25 (sound familiar?) flashed at one outside the off stump and off he went. It’s a great (GREAT) shame but he’ll be 30 before next season starts; it feels as though his time is up.

For what it’s worth, Sky reported that he passed 2,000 List A runs at the Ageas Bowl during that innings.

Isha Guha on TMS after nine overs: “James Vince is really finding his feet here, hitting shots all around the ground. He is making it look effortless.” Five balls later he was out and Matthew Henry – BBC Sport online – wrote “Look James Vince up in the dictionary and you’d see that innings”.

PS Good to hear Nick Knight praising the pitch – flat, fast and not at all responsible for the early struggles of the batsmen on both sides.

But no place for Liam or Reece Topley – Ireland batting. Hedgehog mentioned Michael Carberry on the commentary team and I’ve just seen another batsman who played very occasionally for Hampshire, with a microphone – now what was his name?

This is Ireland’s first ODI at the Bowl. They have played Hampshire five times, home & away, losing four, with one abandoned. One match was at Southampton in the B&H in 1996, then two FPT matches at the Bowl in 2007 & 2009, when they scored 221-6 in 48 overs (D/L) and 239-9 in 50 (Kevin O’Brien 94 – their highest innings on the ground)

PS It seems they might not break any records today – 40 minutes played, 28-5. Will Vince get an innings?

PPS: At 103-7 they have passed the lowest ODI score on the ground of 65 by USA v Australia in 2004. The lowest v England is 135 by Pakistan in 2010.

Who will play? Difficult to see that the two youngsters made a strong case over the past two days and while Felix Organ went cheaply he did enough last year to start – I’m not sure that’s the case with Soames. I wonder how close Harry Came is to selection?

Seems as though McManus will ‘keep’ which is OK with me – it’s time for Tom Alsop to become a permanent top order batsman.

I’m interested in at least a couple of the absentees, Ryan Stevenson and Brad Taylor, both of whom have had injuries in recent seasons but both of whom are at that point when they need to win a place or say goodbye. I’m assuming Barker simply rested yesterday.

PS: Don’t Forget! We are approaching that time when Tigger’s wonderful website swings into daily action – for example did you know that not one of Sussex’s 10 partnership records v Hampshire were set in this century, whereas three of ours were?

Check everything at

http://hampshirecricket.net/

Sussex 102-3 (Finch 46*) & 102-4 (Wells 36*)

Hampshire 150 (Weatherley 55*; Northeast 37; McManus 17*, Claydon 3-20)

Barker, Fuller & Holland took one wicket each in the first Sussex innings and Holland, Crane, Currie & Fuller took one wicket each in the second (Barker did not bowl)

PS “Hampshire Cricket today announces a new partnership with Gallagher”. Liam or Noel?

Squawking Seagull that is (below, early this morning, socially distanced)

Not sure how today will proceed. Normally each side has an innings on each day. Maybe Sussex bat to lunch so it ends up as two sessions each?

The radio commentary is reliable at https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/cricket/53503465

The live feed and commentary is dodgy at https://youtu.be/6NUZAFvSoRQ

Or you can get all the scorecard details, video highlights and the same dodgy live feed at http://live.nvplay.com/ecb/#m3ce9fcb5-1ce5-4fec-bab5-86f529d89e1d

But that’s the thing – I’m always saying they play these pre-season friendlies too early in the season; I mean, what do they expect?

One of those days huh?

When Hampshire play their home Championship matches at Arundel they will have played home and away in the same competition on the same ground

Has that ever happened before? (N.B: I’m not interested here in different sponsors’ names, just ‘broadly’ the same competition)

Incidentally our Championship record at Arundel is Played 6; Won 1; Drawn 3; Lost 2.

I’m pretty sure the live stream is unwatchable (it’s not just me)

After lunch try the radio:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/cricket/53503465

LUNCH 102-3 (27) – Finch 46*; Brown 37*

Wickets for each of Barker: 6-4-9-1; Fuller 8-1-31-1; Holland 5-2-11-1

No joy for the new boys though: Dale 5-0-31-0; Currie 3-0-20-0