Hampshire Cricket History

I’ve done the dustbins, been for the paper and despite a dry forecast (not quite true right now) it’s cold, windy and pretty gloomy. Will bad light be the problem today?

I have a list of all our home first-class/Test matches in the 21st century that have lasted fewer than 200 overs. A handful did so because of a quick result but of those affected by the weather, 78 overs v Essex at Arundel in August last year is the shortest, followed by 83 overs v Cardiff Uni in April 2018 (three-days).

In July 2012 we managed just 106 overs against Yorkshire, and v Warwickshire got into the 120th over in August 2001. The shortest (five-day) Test Match was last year’s v Pakistan in August (134.3 overs)

This year’s game v Leicestershire in May – the one you might have attended – is up next in the four-day list and so it goes on; there are in total 15 four-day Championship matches at the Bowl that come in as rain-affected draws, with under 200 overs. There is a pattern of sorts in those: April has 3; May 5; July 3; August 3 – but there are none in September and only one in June, which at 195.4 overs v Kent (2008) is the longest of the shortest, if that makes sense.

Of course this current (June) Test has over four its days so far failed to reach 150 overs – although it’s possible that over six days it will get beyond 200 overs.

Even worse for the cricket.

It’s raining in Pompey, so at the Bowl …?

Rain stops play at the Rain Bowl (3.10pm)

Dave’s garden?

Feeding time for Brad Taylor, Aneurin Donald and a couple of pals

It’s brightened up a bit at the Bowl but it’s a beautiful sunny day down here now

The BBC reports “England were denied a first Test victory since 2014“

That’s the women of course. But India finished on 340-8 which was a lead of 175 with two wickets still to fall. Maybe England would have won given a fifth day but 175+ on the last day? Surely they might have lost that.

There has been sad but less surprising news on the pace bowling front in the past couple of weeks with the news that Olly Stone and Reece Topley both have bad injuries. I’m sorry for them but it’s hardly a shock is it?

It’s possible to have all kinds of debates about the relative merits of the good old days against today and it often ends up each to his or her own.

Except in the matter of the fitness of quick bowlers

If there is any evidence to show that pace bowlers ‘broke down’ as often back in the 1950s & 60s (1970s?) as they do now, I’ve never seen it. Every year you’d turn up and watch not just Shackleton & Cannings or Shackleton & White, but Jackson & Gladwin/Rhodes, Statham & Trueman, Bailey & Preston/Knight, Flavell & Coldwell, Wheatley & Bannister, Bedser & Loader, Thomson & Buss, Smith & Brown etc etc. Sometimes one would get an injury but it was very rare.

So, what about today’s prospects at the Bowl? It’s damp but not raining down in Pompey but it’s very gloomy and the light level has been set now. There’s rain forecast tomorrow and Tuesday too. Hard to maintain much enthusiasm at the minute – a bit like the Bob Willis Final last year, maybe ‘one-off- first-class Finals (in England) are just too risky?

Starting with our stuffing at Hove, seven days in which we “snatched defeat …” etc at Radlett, England surrendered in the Test, the World Championship Final and our game at the Oval were both rained off yesterday and then there was all that excitement about a football match at Wembley last night.

Has it finished yet? Sorry, I nodded off. I have friends (particularly in the world of music) who never had the sporty DNA – and often ‘take the Mick’ out of me for my interest. On weeks like that, I wish I was like them!

Anyway, for those of you in distant parts, the rain has relented here – 15 miles down the road – and the pavement is dry, so maybe it’s the same at the Bowl – perfectly named and shaped of course to be a container for liquid.

Here’s hoping

That today’s play at the Ageas Bowl was wiped out. It’s the first time in the seventh Test match there that Day One has seen no play – although it’s not the first time a whole day has been lost (last year v Pakistan, day three)

The shortest previous first day was in 2011 (the first match) 38 overs v Sri Lanka. Rain ruined that game which was drawn with a total of 261 overs in five days. The other very short Test was last year v Pakistan, 46 overs on day one, but only 135 overall. Four Tests have had at least 327 overs and three of those four ended in a positive result – two wins for England and one for West Indies.

(I pinched this photo from BBC)

Apologies. The first photo I showed was the Board when originally designed but I found a bunch of emails. I had spotted the error on 2015 and had the board re-done. Here (below) is the photo of the Board as it is now displayed (and correct)

All this is probably because I’m getting too old, although I’ve been completing another book and talking to the publishers this week. As Bob once said ‘I Got A Head Full Of Ideas That Are Driving Me Insane’ (“Maggie’s Farm”).

Sometimes being the Historian and trying to preserve the history isn’t quite the smooth sailing it should be.

I read Ian’s Comment about Mead, answered it and thought, that’s not right

Then I looked at Tennyson 1912 and thought, he wasn’t even playing in 1911 (it’s always awarded a year after the great performances)

And SO

The truth is, the Board is wrong

Phil Mead should be 1912

Lionel Tennyson should be 1914

(At which point I swore rather loudly)

That’s another job to do

Steven asks whether TE Jesty is the only one of ours born in Hampshire – no, he’s one of two and the one chosen to reveal all by pulling back the curtain a few years ago (2015? here with two men from Wisden)

16 in total (next?) and depending on where you put Boris’s border, nine or ten are ‘overseas’ (not counting the Scot)

I’ve now deleted the offending, first, incorrect board photo