Hampshire Cricket History

The Champions have a relaxing week

WEEK NINETEEN (ONE DAY) 1 September-7 September

A quiet week, albeit with a long trip to a damp Bradford for a Sunday match with Yorkshire. Richards & Greenidge posted 74 but after 30 overs their innings was closed on 121-4, then more rain reduced Yorkshire’s target to 85 from 21 overs. Herman trapped Boycott for nought but Jack Hampshire’s 57* won the match, secured them second place and with it £1,000.

Below, 12 of the 13 meet up 10 years ago on the 40th anniversary

Sunday is the day of the the annual get together of our past players and at the last count those coming included 91-year-old Dennis Baldry, a member of our Championship winning side of 1961 and also, alphabetically Number One on our list of the 222 players who have appeared in List A matches for Hampshire – the two debutants this year were Joe Eckland (221) and Eddie Jack (2232).

Hampshire played their first ever one-day, single innings knock-out cup match (sponsored by Gillette) sixty years ago in May 1963, losing by just six runs after Mike Barnard (98) was dismissed with three balls remaining. Dennis actually retired at the end of the 1962 season but was brought back for this one match because (unbelievably) Derek Shackleton was missing. So Dennis, a batter who bowled a bit actually bowled his 15 overs taking 4-70. Why 15 overs? Because each side had 65 in that first year and each bowler could bowl up to 15. Just one other Hampshire man from that day in 1963 is still alive and while Alan Wassell is not too well these days we hope he will be there too on Sunday – he is now the one man left who was on the field on that historic day 1st September 1961.

Hampshire weren’t very good at the one-day knock-out stuff way back, reaching just one semi-final in the first 12 years when we were stuffed by Worcs (99 runs in 1966). In the 1970s and particularly the 1980s we made better progress and actually won a semi-final at Chelmsford in 1988 but our defeat by one run at home to Northants in 1990 was our ninth semi-final defeat in the first ten attempts. We won the next two (and the Finals) then lost three more – the last in 2000 at Edgbaston. We’ve had our revenge since then though and in nine semi-finals since 2005 we have won seven, so that’s been more fun! And having won them we went on to win the Finals in 2005, 2009, 2012 and 2018. I hope I can add 2023 soon.

That is Warwickshire’s lowest ever List A total v Hampshire although (18-0) it might not be Hampshire’s biggest List A victory at Edgbaston. In 1991 they won by nine wickets on their way to securing the Nat West Trophy.

Liam’s terrific bowling is now the best-ever in List A for Hampshire beating a really old record by Peter Sainsbury who took 7-30 v Norfolk at Southampton, 58 years ago in 1965**. Hampshire won that match easily but the main resistance came from Norfolk’s opening bat, a chap called Henry Blofeld. Their captain, Bill Edrich managed just 10.

**Tigger posted this – comment below.

PS So they equalled the 1991 result and the match finished by 2.25pm! Brilliant result and the third List A final in six years (and it was not played in one of those).

Hampshire have named a squad of 17 today to give recognition to everyone who has played in the Metro Cup so far. Weatherley might come in for for Albert who looked a bit lost in his brief innings on Sunday, although given the anxieties around the bowling options (saved to some extent by the skipper) I wonder whether Currie, who can bat, is fit?

Fingers crossed.

On commentary yesterday, Kevan was suggesting that Dom Kelly & Eddie Jack were not playing because they had belatedly joined the England under-19 squad. He was right – they are both playing today v Australia u-19 at Beckenham, so I think we can assume they won’t play tomorrow at Edgbaston.

Worcs have won the toss and field

We have picked a very experienced side which means no place for the ‘kids’ – a decision which has led to some interesting discussions around the Atrium and elsewhere. Brad Wheal and Mason Crane who have come back from the Hundred to play are in but so is Liam Dawson who will play his first 50 overs game for Hampshire since 2019. Nick Gubbins (captain) and Toby Albert return from injury – Felix Organ is not playing.

Worcs have chosen to stick with the players who got them this far – no place for former Hampshire 2nd XI man Adam Hose.

First over: Pennington to Middleton

I saw the Alabama Three (Sopranos?) of whom I have heard – they were very fine

The squad is named then and the answers appear to be: Gubbins Yes; Crane Yes, Wheal Yes, Dawson Yes, Howell No and the SB guys, as I suspected, No.

I have seen a discussion elsewhere suggesting Dawson should not play, having been off elsewhere – seems to have generated some strong feelings.

All together now: “Woke Up This Morning …” (PS: what’s with all this rain everywhere?)

Tomorrow?

I’m off to get soaked at a Festival today, listening to bands I’ve never heard of so before I depart, team for tomorrow?

Kelly and Jack are still not in the England under-19 side so presumably available. They have done OK but are (econ) the most expensive in an attack led nicely by Holland. Any changes from Tuesday? Is Gubbins fit? Will Wheal return? Will we retain Crane? Might we consider Dawson and/or Howell?

I’m assuming that even if SB lose today those guys (Fuller, Vince, Weatherley) won’t play

Eleven cricketers who have played for Hampshire this year were signed to one or other of the Hundred sides although Brad Wheal never actually got onto the pitch. They did not generally perform very well (among the batters for instance no one got to 35, neither Wood not Crane took a wicket and went at an economy rate of 240 runs per 100 balls).

The best all-round performer was Benny Howell (Birmingham) whose 58 runs came at 19.33 (a fraction ahead of James Vince) and seven wickets cost 15.14 each at an economy rate of 111.57.

The BBC has a fascinating piece about him on their website today which among other things probably explains how he came to be ‘despatched’ by Hampshire to Gloucs early in his promising career.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/66572466

It’s a long one!

WEEK EIGHTEEN (7 DAYS) 25 August- 31 August

The vital two-day win against Northamptonshire allowed the Hampshire players four days ‘off’, after which they travelled to Bournemouth for the Holiday week starting with a Championship match against lowly Nottinghamshire. Surrey also had the rest of that week free but Northamptonshire took six points from a draw with Leicestershire, while victory for Gloucestershire at Derby brought them up the table but probably too far behind to challenge for the title.

Gilliat won the toss on Saturday but Hampshire’s 263 all out was frustrating as two men reached 30, two more 20 and four more including Mottram (15*) double figures yet their highest innings was Taylor’s 49. The Nottinghamshire openers Harris & White reached 53-0, while elsewhere, Northamptonshire (242) had Warwickshire in trouble at 43-5 but at Leeds, Surrey were dismissed for 184 (Yorkshire 47-2).

On the Sunday, Nottinghamshire and Hampshire moved to Southampton where a television audience and crowd of 4,000 saw Derek Randall (66) and Basharat Hassan (68) take the visitors to 183-7. Richards then hit 48 from 36 balls and Hampshire won in the 37^th over with five wickets to spare (Turner 41*) moving up to third place, still five points behind Yorkshire.

At Bournemouth on Monday, Nottinghamshire lost two wickets getting to 85, from which point they collapsed to O’Sullivan (6-26) & Sainsbury (2-3) and were all out for 127, a deficit of 136 with five bowling points for Hampshire. Hampshire lost their top three for just 47 but Gilliat led with 56, supported by Taylor (37*) and having closed on 208-7 they declared overnight, challenging Nottinghamshire to score 345 to win, significantly the highest total of the match. Elsewhere, Northamptonshire set Warwickshire 310 to win and had them 2-2 at the close with two night-watchmen at the crease. Surrey dismissed Yorkshire for 90, declared before the close setting 342 to win and took a wicket that evening, so the pressure remained on Hampshire.

Fortunately it did not last long on Tuesday morning as Nottinghamshire struggled to score, subsiding to 49 all out in the 33^rd over with O’Sullivan taking 5-15 in 12 overs. Northamptonshire and Surrey also won but with 227 points and two games to play Hampshire had pretty well put Northamptonshire out of the running as they were 22 points behind but with just one to play and that one game was against Surrey at Guildford. Surrey still had two to play but the gap for them was 34 points so it appeared that a good haul of bonus points for Hampshire might clinch the title.

Meanwhile, Hampshire’s reserves reached the final of the 40-over under-25 competition beating Nottinghamshire by 79 runs with contributions from Rice (52), Murtagh (41) and Roberts (30* & 3-10). Two days later they lost the Final at Edgbaston, Middlesex winning by a huge 169 runs (Nick Ross 148*) despite Roberts taking 3-29. Martin Wigger hit 45, Peter Barrett 23*.

On Wednesday morning at Bournemouth, Gloucestershire’s skipper Tony Brown won the toss, chose to bat and watched openers Sadiq Mohammad (47) and Roger Knight take them to 74 before Taylor struck and continued to do so as they fell to 107-7. David Shepherd & Jim Foat added 60 but Taylor’s 7-53 kept them to 181-8 on a rain-affected first day and 204 all out early the next morning. Hampshire took five bowling points while Surrey reached 259 all out against Northamptonshire (Cottam 6-94) and three batting points.

When Hampshire batted wickets fell quite regularly but Greenidge (96 in 130 minutes) and Sainsbury pushed towards 300, then thirties from Taylor & O’Sullivan and a 10^th wicket partnership of 23 ensured eight batting points. At Guildford, Northamptonshire were skittled for 64 (Robin Jackman 6-25) and following-on closed on 185-8, still behind, so, with a day left, Surrey seemed sure to win but with the first innings concluded in both matches, Hampshire stood 37 points ahead of Surrey. The latter could still obtain 20 points from two victories but would need 17 bonus points to draw level, assuming Hampshire took no more points – and 17 bonus points would be a record. In fact there was a general agreement that when Hampshire secured their eighth batting point around tea, that confirmed them as Champions.

On the Friday, 170 from Sadiq Mohammad helped Gloucestershire to a lead of 187 with one wicket to fall but with the title decided, Gloucestershire hoped to win to secure prize money and were probably keen to depart for London and their first Lord’s Final the following day, so they declared setting Hampshire a generous target of 188. Greenidge (65) and Gilliat (48) led the new Champions to victory in the 33^rd over by five wickets and having taken 19 wickets this became the one victory of Hampshire’s ten that year when they did not take all 20 wickets in the match. On the following day, as Hampshire travelled north, Gloucestershire beat Surrey at Lord’s by 40 runs to win the Gillette Cup – they also finished fifth in the final Championship table.