Hampshire Cricket History

There is an interesting end of year piece in today’s Guardian, their five “Moments” of the cricketing year:

1. Bairstow goes wild at Trent Bridge, which is actually extended to cover the impact of the new England regime
2. The conclusion of India v Pakistan in the World T20, notably Kohli’s innings
3. Charlie Dean’s (Mankad) run-out at Lord’s
4. Nathan Ellis winning the T20 for Hampshire (twice)
5. Trent Boult declining a new Central Contract to concentrate on family & franchise cricket

Number 5 is seen as a sign of the times and we all remember number 4 I’m sure. Since Charlie Dean is essentially a Pompey girl who went to my old school (a few years later!) I might be inclined to sympathise but I don’t much, although I loathe the whole business. There are two interesting observations in the Guardian piece: Michael Atherton suggested that if the non-striker stays where they should, “this thing can never happen” while subsequently someone checked the whole innings and worked out that Dean actually encroached on about 85% of deliveries as a non-striker. I bet she won’t do it again.

Happy New Year!

Sharing this with you (clearly sporting prowess not one of the criteria)

https://www.mylondon.news/news/uk-world-news/london-quite-rightly-named-uks-25826080

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way

Oh what fun it is to see England win away.

Merry Christmas

Hampshire’s leading man likes to keep busy. You probably know he plays in a band, Strapped for Cash. Well they’ve just released a new album with lots of songs written by Rod and produced by Chris Thomas who has a notable CV having worked with the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Sex Pistols etc (look him up). Chris is pictured top left from the inner sleeve

Over a Christmas Bowl …”

(From ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Hampshire-born Charles Dickens)

Whether Pakistan will now recall their best bowler?

My days of travelling the country watching county cricket are virtually over now so as far as I can see, at home next year there is one Championship match in July, none in August and finally one early September and one right at the end? Otherwise in August there’s the (depleted) 50-over stuff which I enjoyed last year. It’s not really a fixture list for the likes of me any more and each year I feel myself drifting away …