A Treasure

January 16, 2023, 12:07 pm
Filed under: Uncategorized

From a very good friend. If you have a copy of my A-Z Hampshire County Cricketers you probably saw the dedication to Neil Jenkinson my predecessor, “mentor and friend”. Neil died a few years ago but not before handing over many of his records and artefacts to our Archive. There were still a couple of boxes and some photos remaining and yesterday morning I visited his son Ben (a handy ‘leggie’ in his day) to collect and sort them.

Almost immediately I discovered this somewhat battered but remarkable item. It shows the ship that brought the MCC (England) side back home in March 1912 after the successful Ashes tour of 1911/12 which under the captaincy of JWHT Douglas (Essex), England won 4-1. Around the edges are the signatures of Manager Pelham Warner and the players including great names like Wilfred Rhodes, Jack Hobbs, SF Barnes, Herbert Strudwick, George Gunn and (bottom right) Hampshire’s Phil Mead who played in four of the five Test Matches.

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This was Mead’s first Test series. He wasn’t particularly successful, averaging just 21.00 but never again would he average less than a 40 for England and overall his Test average was 49.37.

Comment by Dave Allen January 16, 2023 @ 12:10 pm

Certainly a treasure. Describing Pelham Warner as Manager is not quite right. He was the appointed captain, played the first match, scored a hundred, but was then taken ill, and did not play again on tour. JWHT (Johnny Wont Hit Today) Douglas, presumably as vice-captain, stepped up and captained in all the Test Matches.

Comment by Ian Laidlaw January 17, 2023 @ 11:50 pm

Many thanks Ian – and Douglas was the captain replaced by Tennyson in 1921.

Comment by Dave Allen January 18, 2023 @ 9:20 am

Completely irrelevant to this post (again!) but your followers may wish to know that Colehill Cricket Club have raised the necessary amount by crowdfunding to erect ball-proof high fencing in vulnerable areas of the perimeter of their ground, and cricket will continue there this summer after all! Thank you all for your support.

Comment by Ruth Allen January 16, 2023 @ 2:06 pm

Thanks Ruth – excellent!

Comment by Dave Allen January 16, 2023 @ 3:15 pm