During the final Championship game of the season against Surrey, Kyle Abbott took his season's tally of wickets to 56. His name is quite rightly bracketed with Andy Roberts, Derek Shackleton and Malcolm Marshall whenever Post 1945 all-time best Hampshire elevens are ever discussed. He signed an extension to ensure he comes back in 2026. To date in 116 first class matches for the club, Kyle has taken 478 wickets at exactly 20 apiece. This season, he has led the Hampshire attack yet again with outstanding skill and real heart. He is extremely fit and a great role model to a battery of young quicks at the club who show great promise. They are privileged to play with him. Without him, Hampshire would have been relegated before that fateful month of September for the club had even begun. He deserved all the plaudits and awards which rightly came his way immediately after the season ended. The First Division in the County Championship is a much better league next season with him in it. 

In order to capture some of what makes him an undisputed modern Hampshire "great" on the page, Kevin Emery sat down to do an interview with us at the Hotel End, directly behind the bowler's arm, while Kyle was bowling in the second innings of that Surrey game. Just for the record, Kyle finished with yet another 5 wicket wicket haul, even as we chatted. Here is that interview with Kevin, who took 79 County Championship wickets himself in his debut season of 1982 (at less than 24 apiece) when he was named "Young Cricketer of the Year":

Kevin, what impresses you most watching Kyle bowl?

Watching him live here and on TV, the first thing to say is that he is very consistent - very consistent in his lengths and in his lines. So he's not giving the batsmen any freebies. After that, he is then going to work on keeping them in the crease and developing a plan of attack. One of his real virtues is that he can find that length that differs between grounds around the country; you know, that is just key. He reads the wicket very early on and then invariably finds that right length each time. He is also extremely fit. If you talk in terms of longevity, Jimmy Anderson's the best, but being able to repeat, come back and bowl again, for spell after spell, and just physically being in great shape to last the course defines them both. Kyle also bowls regularly with a new ball, that gives him some advantage, when it is a bit harder and it nips around more. Kyle nips it either way from sort of middle crease and he just always keeps the batsmen honest. I think he also just surprises them now and again with very subtle changes of pace. 

How would you describe his action?

Firstly, the wrist is always behind the ball. He is not chest on, but slightly open. He's not classical sideways, but comes in on a fairly straight approach. Crucially, the wrist is always strong and he can then just adjust the ball very slightly to nip it either side. He really knows what he is doing; he bowls really well to left handers. His attack to left handers is often round the wicket. It is like a fast off break. If you can come in with the angle and hold it up, then that's going to get some of the better left handers out.  When he comes in - both over and round the wicket - he also has the ability to vary his angle slightly on the crease. His natural angle is coming in and he's got the ball that holds up and nips away. He also gets very decent carry. 

What other advantages does he have at the start of his run up?

He dots people up a lot and builds pressure. As a bowler, you are not preying on the batsman's ego, but the level of comfort say. He is constantly asking questions of them. So I notice today that Dan Lawrence has walked down the track to him a few times to say, okay, that's means you've got to bowl a bit shorter, which gives it less chance to do something. And every time Dan does walk down, he just lets it go. He doesn't want to whack him, but he's just trying to put the bowler off his length. So how does Kyle respond? He just says to himself on the way back to his mark, I know what I am good at, that is fine, I'm still on the crease, I'm watching the batsman and I can just adjust, if need be. He is totally confident that lbw, bowled and nicked off are always all in play because he is so consistent. He's not getting people out  slapped to cover. Just hit that line, nip it a bit either way, hope the bounce will be a factor. He is not a big swinger of the ball, which requires you to change your grip far more on the ball. It is all about pitch groupings and building the pressure. Nothing on the pads to open up the leg side scoring options. Maidens always matter.

Which bowlers were similar to Kyle back when you played?

Although Kyle is a couple of yards quicker, someone like Angus Fraser, you know, where he's wearing away that little patch on the length to either left or right handers. They both send down that "heavy ball" that hits the bat. Change of pace with Kyle as well can be key, but so often these are just very subtle changes. Let's just say he is normally bowling mid to late 80s, and then he bowls one at 73, because you put the ball in your hand a bit deeper, you splay your fingers or something. That's where on slow, low wickets, you can get the batsman out caught when they are through the shot too early. As we know, there's loads of different types of dismissal and on flatter wickets without movement, that is where the best bowlers like Kyle come into their own. 

It feels like Kyle needs overs in his legs and is always just as effective in his third or fourth spell of the day? How important is it to bowl lots of overs as a paceman or seamer?

He would have bowled in South Africa growing up with lots of overs coming through. Once you have physically developed and past the risks of stress fractures and stuff like that, you need to bowl overs and overs. You get to know what your body needs, you know when you're in rhythm, when you're not, and how you can fight through it. And so from his perspective, I guess he'll know the days that he's right on it and the days that he is battling. But to the untrained eye it just looks the same. For some of the younger bowlers today, it is far harder. They don't get the amount of overs, and you not going to learn how to do that. You will not be taking the volume of wickets, or like he's consistently done at 20 apiece. He just continually hits that awkward length for batsmen, generates good bounce and carry. We all know that there are no two balls exactly the same. He doesn't waste the short ball. He knows what works for him: don't try to do too many things. Just hit the crease, cant the seam slightly differently, maybe put it in your hand slightly differently, but keep that right length for that wicket. 

How crucial are bowling partnerships?

Huge, of course. With Mo Abbas and Kyle, they complemented each other perfectly. Abbas would bowl that ball that kissed the pitch, a bit further up, nipping it a little bit either way, challenging the ego of the batsman more. Meanwhile Abbott, from the other end,  was hitting the bat hard. So both were really different. But both are also thinking bowlers. Thinking the batsman out and working to a plan, And so with the new ball, I would have thought those two together - on wickets that helped a bit - then there was no bigger handful that you could face in modern day County Cricket. Hampshire were very lucky to have them both. Mo has definitely played his part in Nottinghamshire's title triumph this summer. 

What will his legacy be?

The crucial thing from a supporter's perspective is that you want your overseas players to be here for the whole summer, not to pop in and out. You want them to be part of the makeup of the dressing room over a number of years. You want to see them doing it day in and day out, giving their all.  With Kyle, every time I see him, it always comes across to me that it really means something for him to play for Hampshire. He has been a tremendous signing from day one. A consistently top performer, a great club man and a joy to watch for all Hampshire supporters. His place in the rich history of this club is assured.

After that final day drama of the 2025 domestic season - which means Hampshire retain their County Championship Division One status in 2026 - no words can really express the combination of surprise and then gratitude that I felt towards Yorkshire on Saturday September 27th. In making it so hard for Durham on the last day of the season at Headingley to hang on for a draw, they gave ample proof of the integrity of this grand old competition. It may have changed when the Championship was split into two divisions (for the first time since 1890) in 2000, but essentially Hampshire will compete to win that coveted third title again next April, after all the heartache of the final month of this season. Only Somerset have been in the top flight longer than Hampshire who also endured the heartbreak of those Cup Final defeats on the two previous Saturdays in a very testing September. Add in the third narrow Cup Final defeat in the space of two weeks, this time for the Hampshire Women at the Utilita Bowl - to a strong Lancashire side - and it was a tough end to the 2025 season for every Hampshire Cricket supporter. Having said all that, we would be the envy of so many other counties to have progressed so well on all fronts in white ball cricket in all the men's and women's competitions. 

Adi Birrell leaves with every good wish from Hampshire Cricket Heritage after his seven years in charge. He is clearly loved by the players and rightly admired by all of us who support this wonderful club. His genuine support for all those who actively volunteer for Hampshire Cricket Heritage has definitely not gone unnoticed. Modest, proud and extremley engaging, Adi leaves so many fond and lasting memories behind from his time in charge. It feels entirely right that Hampshire avoided relegation for him as much as any of the players.

With the season sadly over for six months, I wanted to sum up our year so far. From the outset, I would like to state again that I am extremely proud of being Chair of Hampshire Cricket Heritage. I would also like to acknowledge the fantastic work done for us by all our Officers, Volunteers and Supporters. Our aim is always to Protect and Develop the Hampshire Cricket Archive owned by Hampshire Cricket Heritage. We collect donations from our Supporters as well as buying from auctions/dealers. Such items this year have included John Arlott monographs to supplement our John Arlott Collection. Whichever way you look at it, we only have 4 or 5 monographs left to get in order to complete a very important part of our John Arlott collection. I never thought I would be saying that 2 years ago! This was down to all the efforts of all our Supporters and we had a great reaction to this appeal from our fabulous Supporters; we’re also most grateful to Glen Williams in our Archive Room for driving and curating that project.

We are always humbled by amounts raised by our famous Book Sales and we love meeting our supporters and thanking them for all they do for us. We have numerous Hampshire Handbooks/Wisdens/Hampshire books and it is great to help fellow Hampshire Crickets collectors develop their own Hampshire Cricket Collections, whilst collecting funds to purchase items for the Hampshire Cricket Archive. An item a Supporter donated to us really made me quite emotional. We were donated a range of Membership Cards with the special labels on them. The ones we already had in our collection were in the Book Sale in September. A Supporter couldn’t believe we had them on the stall and even had the one from their first season. The pleasure on their faces as they went back to their seats with it was a joy to behold. A special moment. We are also working with other County Cricket Heritage Groups and have already received items from Somerset, Sussex and Nottinghamshire. We are extremely grateful to them for all these items. Throughout 2025, we have been given many other items from numerous other families. You can read about some of these by clicking on the Archive Room / Updates or Supporters Page / Supporters Donations tabs at the top of this page. We clearly cannot feature all donations on this site, but rest assured every item is gratefully received.

A season's highlight came at the end of June when it was a real honour for HCH to host The Hampshire Former Players’ Reunion Day. Rob Pfeiffer at the club had done a fine job in gathering together a group of 30 Former Players for the event which was truly enjoyed by all. It really is fantastic to see all the heroes of your past. They say you should never meet your heroes but with Hampshire Former Players it couldn’t be further from the truth. We are always in awe of our special heroes from Hampshire Cricket. They have also helped us tremendously with many of our HCH publications which I’m sure you all enjoy. The flavour they add with their own reminisces is immeasurable. Dave Allen had recently retired as Hampshire Historian and he received the Rose and Crown from Rod Bransgrove in honour of all his efforts for Hampshire Cricket over too many years to count! The only previous winner was Tim Tremlett which shows the depth of Dave’s achievements. Trevor Jesty, on behalf of HCH, also presented Dave with various items of Hampshire cricket memorabilia from the 1949 season This was the year of Dave’s birth and included memorabilia from many Portsmouth cricket and football occasions. Well done Dave - well deserved.

In summary then a historic season for the Hampshire Women and Men on the field. Off it, there are some important thanks to record for HCH. Everyone at the club and at the ground has been immensely supportive in all our interactions throughout this summer again. The club itself has donated a number of playing kit items at the end of the season which will feature in our displays in the Archive Room, as we seek to capture and record the recent as well as the more distant past. We trust you will continue to find much of interest with new posts on this website each month over the winter. Hopefully, the fixture computer in late November will grant us a four-day trip to Scarborough next summer in the Division One Fixture List. Liam's Semi-Final knock there this summer, by the way, was up right there as a season's highlight - along with a number of Kyle's best efforts in so many red ball games - in the Hampshire summer that was 2025. 

A summer when the sun shone virtually throughout and we got the right result for the men - right at the very, very end!  

RG HCH Chair 

October 7th 2025

Portsmouth

The exact year of this photo is unknown, though, according to a Portsmouth Evening News report in 1975.  It was some time in the late 1920's and is believed to be a rugby game between US Portsmouth and Oxford University at Burnaby Road.

Hampshire Survive! 

Week Twenty-Six:  Beginning Monday September 29th 2025

On the first day of the last game, Hampshire bowled out reigning champions Surrey for 147, to all but extinguish the visitor’s Rothesay County Championship title-winning hopes. In doing so, the home side clearly boosted their chance of remaining in Division One. It was time to hope again! Surrey went into the last round 14 points behind Nottinghamshire – who they lost to at the Kia Oval last week – but after they collapsed in this game, their hopes of a fourth successive crown dwindled further. For the umpteenth time, Kyle Abbott led the rout with three for 27 – taking his 50th Championship scalp of the season in the process. He was backed up by James Fuller and Washington Sundar, who also picked up three-wicket hauls. Hampshire then eased themselves into a first-innings lead, picking up three vital bonus points in their fight for safety.

Having won the toss, Surrey chose to bat first and gave 17-year-old Ralphie Albert his first-class debut. The all-rounder, who is related to snooker legend Jimmy White, wasn’t even born when Hampshire’s Liam Dawson made his professional bow. With international workloads an ongoing issue, Surrey were massively depleted with Gus Atkinson, Ollie Pope, Jamie Smith, Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Tom Curran, Jordan Clark and Cam Steel all unavailable, but even still their disappointing batting display was surprising. The big wicket of Dom Sibley, who was lbw to Abbott early on, started the collapse, before the South African drew a loose drive out of Ryan Patel to celebrate his 50th wicket of the season. This is the sixth Championship campaign that Abbott has reached the landmark; he would later add No. 51 when he bowled Ralphie Albert. Fuller then grabbed three wickets to dismiss the rest of the top order. The back end of the innings saw wickets fall to the spinners. Indian international Sundar was particularly tight in his 20 balls, conceding just five runs while taking three wickets.

Surrey had been bowled out for that 147 inside just 44 overs. This was their lowest total of the season at the least opportune moment. The pitch had offered a fair amount of sideways movement, but not excessive. Nearly all the wickets were down to batting errors and high-quality seam bowling, rather than the nature of the surface or overhead conditions. Ali Orr smashed 18 off the second over of the innings alone. By the fifth over, the openers had already secured a partnership higher than anything Surrey had managed in their innings – their best being the 32 between Lawrence and Sykes. Orr’s fast start was then undone by swing down the leg side, before Fletcha Middleton and Nick Gubbins put on 50 to set the foundation. Just before the close, Lawrence then bowled Gubbins and had Middleton leg-before, ending the day with two for 12 after an exceptional nine over spell of off spin. For the last 5 overs of the incident-filled day, Hampshire avoided any serious wobble, as Toby Albert and Ben Brown stayed cautiously positive to take them to the close with a slight lead.  With 13 wickets falling on the opening day, though, fears of further pitch inspection and scrutiny felt inevitable.

On the second day, while Surrey finally  lost their grasp on the Rothesay County Championship trophy for the first time in 1,100 days - but saw a glimpse into their future as yet another talented youngster in Ralphie Albert took centre stage - Hampshire looked to be in real relegation trouble. In truth, it was a very bad day at the office, and the energy levels felt low in the field late on. Nottinghamshire deservedly confirmed themselves as champions, meanwhile at Trent Bridge, midway through the evening session to end Surrey’s three-season dynasty as the red ball kings in English domestic cricket. Albert is the 17-year-old grandson of snooker icon Jimmy White, and he celebrated his first two first-class wickets, before then picking up a maiden red ball fifty to give Surrey a serious chance of sending Hampshire to Division Two. The England Under 19 all-rounder bowled Scott Currie and caught and bowled Kyle Abbott in the morning, although Hampshire still claimed a 101 first-innings lead. At what was effectively 19-5 second time around, he then struck 61 not out during a 97-run stand with Dan Lawrence in the evening. Initially very shaky, he visibly grew in confidence and played with freedom. It meant Surrey ended the day with a 124 lead - with Hampshire needing to at least match Durham’s result to avoid relegation.

This second day was simply one which could not have started worse, though, for the home side. The very first ball of the day saw Toby Albert edge a good length swinging delivery from Matt Fisher to first slip, only to be followed by fellow overnight batter Ben Brown, who was plumb lbw three balls later. Indian leg spinner Rahul Chahar, brought over for this one game, picked up his first Championship wicket when Fuller slog swept to deep square, before Ralphie Albert’s turn deceived Currie. Sundar played very responsibly for an 89-ball fifty, until he picked out deep midwicket off his compatriot, two runs shy of a batting bonus point. That near miss would not impact Hampshire’s chances of staying in Division One, though, with Durham also narrowly failing to get to 350 in their game at Headingley. Just as long as Hampshire match Durham’s result, they will stay up.

The game tilted Hampshire's way again thanks to Abbott and Wheel. Captain Rory Burns’ batting for the season was ended when he edged a good ball to first slip off the latter, before Ryan Patel hooked straight to the deep square fielder, again off the same bowler. Yet again, Abbott then took over with one of his incredible spells, this time taking three crucial top-order wickets in four overs. His selection as the Most Valuable Player in the 2025 County Championship which followed this final game was so deserved. The South African had both Dom Sibley and Ben Foakes caught behind, before keeping one low to dismiss Ollie Sykes. It was then that there was yet enough momentum shift, with nobody able to back up Abbott after he came off. Albert rode his luck and largely made use of space behind the wicket to take himself to a second professional half-century in 68 balls. Lawrence did become Abbott’s fourth victim of the innings when he was bowled. At the close, Surrey still had four wickets left, while Hampshire had suffered a serious blow when Sundar damaged his hand while fielding a ball off his own bowling. Anything above 200 felt like a tricky chase in the context of the match as well as the season. There was also the threat of Chahar on a day three pitch.  

And so it turned out. On debut, he ended that disastrous third day for Hampshire with a potentially match-winning seven for 45. Unbelievably, Hampshire collapsed from 61 without loss to 148 for nine, needing 181 to win. After lunch, the first 50 runs came easily in just 12 overs, with Orr especially fluent. All fears of the drop seem to have eased, until the unthinkable happened: Hampshire lost eight wickets for 59 runs – with Dan Lawrence and Chahar suddenly running amok on a pitch that now had sharper turn and more unpredictable bounce. Middleton almost inexplicably missed a straight full toss, before Nick Gubbins was lbw to a Lawrence delivery that spun sharply and kept low. Chahar thern took over when he turned a ball from straight into the top of off stump to dislodge Toby Albert. Next to go was Ben Brown, lbw to Lawrence, and Orr misread the Chahar googly to depart for 48. Liam Dawson soon followed when he drove at a wide ball from the Indian Test spinner and drilled it straight to short cover. Washington Sundar edged a half-volley to slip and then Abbott was out, under-edging to the keeper just after tea. Only Fuller during this period had provided any resistance, but now had to shepherd No.11 Brad Wheal, often turning down singles as Wheal blocked 22 deliveries to keep Hampshire alive. The tension was extended overnight when the gloomy conditions got too bad, even for spin from both ends. So Hampshire went into the final day of the season needing 33 runs to win with the last pair at the wicket. Defeat meant the drop into Division Two, with the Yorkshire v Durham game in Leeds very much heading for a draw.

It was an emotional final day which saw popular head coach Adi Birrell leave the club after seven years at the helm. The South African was clealrly moved when he was gifted a bull for his farm back in his homeland by the players on that final morning. Inevitably, Chahar bowled the first over of the day and almost induced the edge again first ball. A swept four by Fuller temporarily eased the nerves, before Wheal nicked his first delivery to first slip – but it narrowly fell short. For a period, Fuller and Wheal looked at ease, albeit turning down a number of singles, until Fuller attempted to cut the last ball of another Chahar over and edged behind to Ben Foakes. Cue the Surrey celebrations for Chahar's 8-51 in 24 overs - only Kemar Roach’s eight for 40, and Martin Bicknell’s nine for 45 were better since the turn of the Millennium for Surrey, This was Chahar’s Championship debut, but it felt very rough on Hampshire that a player of such quality should be flown in for this one game! The defeat, with the seemingly nailed on relegation, looked like it would compound Hampshire’s awful September. The rain at Hove, the deduction of eight points in the Championship for breaching the ECB’s pitch regulations, before losing in two men’s finals and a women’s final meant everyone left the Utilita Bowl totally despondent at Lunch on Saturday September 27th.

The biggest drama of the whole season - bar none - then unfolded for Hampshire, 200 miles north of Southampton in Leeds, Durham quite simply totally capitulated. They had started their second innings 129 runs in arrears, with a minimum of 89 overs left in the match against a Yorkshire side whose top-flight status had just been sealed by events elsewhere. Similar to Hampshire's second innings effort, the pressure was too great as they crumbled from 29 for 1 to 85 all out inside 45 overs. In a remarkable early afternoon collapse, George Hill and Dom Bess shone with four wickets apiece. The poor Durham coach, Ryan Campbell, suggested afterwards that a "defensive mindset" had cost his side, as they attempted to survive rather than wipe out the deficit quickly. "I can't explain it. It's just a total capitulation," he said. "Unfortunately, it's happened a few times this year. The pressure went on and our blokes couldn't stop it. Obviously, there's a room full of gutted people. We were handed a lifeline and we didn't take it."

How comforting and surprising then to be able to write this final sentence for the 2025 season. Instead of Hampshire, Durham will now join Worcestershire in playing in Division Two next season.

The tabs across the top of the Home Page on this website spell HAMPSHIRE and contain the following sections;

H     - HCH Events, How to join HCH, Website Guide, FAQ Sheet, Publications

A - Archive Room Updates and Collections

M - Memories and Matches from every season in first- class cricket

P - Photos and Players

S - Supporters page including all the e-Magazines

H - History of the Club, Hampshire’s Historians, Hampshire’s Grounds

I - International cricket played in Hampshire

R  - Records  and Statistics

E - Extras and miscellaneous articles on cricket played in Hampshire

We will be looking over the next few years to share images and information on much of the collection in the Archive Room on this website. It will also contain numerous essays about all aspects of Hampshire's rich cricket history, grouped under the headings above. 

Could anyone help us complete our 

John Arlott Monographs Collection?

Our Archive  Room Curator, Glen Williams, has completely re-organised and re-catalogued our growing HCH Book Collection over the past two years. He is also conducting research on all that John Arlott ever wrote about cricket (and beyond), in order to compile a detailed bibliography over the next couple of years on JA for HCH. This is Glen's update on our John Arlott Book Collection,

"As of August 2025, thanks to supporter donations, HCH purchases and some generous in house HCH donations (you know who you are!) we now have over 60 John Arlott books and 6 limited edition monographs on Hampshire cricketers.

The current list of our monographs is:

Neville Rogers  1956

Derek Shackleton  1958

Leo Harrison  1958

Vic Cannings  1958 (published 1959)

Ingleby-Mackenzie  1962

Peter Sainsbury  1965

With the proceeds from the July Book Sale, we have now been able purchase this month the three below:

Jimmy Gray   1960

Arthur Holt     1963

Henry Horton  1964

Our Chair, Richard Griffiths, recently donated to HCH his own copy of "Derek Shackleton - An Appreciation" by John Arlott. It is signed by both the player and author. This is clearly a series we are very keen to complete for our Archive Room collection because only 50 of each were issued. This fine book (pictures above) was published in 1958 by the Boscombe Printing company in its original slightly faded green sand grained cloth cover with the title in gilt letters. The money raised from the sales in 1958 went to Derek Shackleton's Benefit Fund. The contents of John's piece were reproduced in the 1958 Hampshire Handbook.

Therefore, we now have 9 of the Hampshire monographs and, to complete the collection for Hampshire Cricket Heritage, we are asking if anyone could help us fill in the remaining gaps from their own libraries/collections.

As of September 2025, we still need to acquire the following:

Desmond Eagar: A Memoir On His Retirement From First Class Cricket   1958

Roy Marshall: A Biographical Note     1961

Mervyn Burden: A Memoir    1964

David White     1969

We would particularly appreciate donations of these fine books so much to complete this special part of our John Arlott Collection. Alternatively, if any of our supporters would like to make cash donations to fund the purchase of these four remaining monographs, please contact us via email at hantscccheritage@gmail.com "

Glen Williams HCH

Two very welcome additions to our shirt collection are featured in the picture below. They are Tilak Varma's signed 2025 red-ball playing shirt - donated to HCH by the player and club - and Dave Allen's signed Hampshire shirt with number 59. HCH's historian was awarded this shirt at a recent presentation at the Utilita Bowl by Rod Bransgrove. The number 59 marks Dave's first year watching his beloved Hampshire at Burnaby Road in Portsmouth. It has been signed by all members of the 2025 playing staff. Dave is only the second person to receive the Rose and Crown Lifetime Achievement Award; he is very keen that this shirt should reside in the Archive Room at the Utilita Bowl (with so many other items he has donated to HCH). Both shirts will be on display this autumn in the Archive Room, along with other items from the 2025 season donated by Rod Bransgrove and Hampshire, for the members' tours.

FS ASHLEY-COOPER

 The first two subjects in this series, Desmond Eagar and Harry Altham both played first-class cricket for the county, were centrally involved in the management of the County Club from the end of the War through the next few decades and while Eagar’s historical work was mainly about Hampshire, Altham is known for a broader perspective. This third subject is a man who had no direct link with the club, is said never to have played cricket and apparently did not watch it that often.

One of the great cricket historians, Peter Wynne-Thomas(2003) published his “biographical sketch and bibliography” of that man, Frederick Samuel Ashley-Cooper, identifying him as being “the first person to successfully integrate the history cricket with the game’s statistical record” while also creating “the format for modern cricket records” (3). Despite his comprehensive work and little specific link to Hampshire,Ashley-Cooper (born London, March 1877) warrants his inclusion in this series for at least four publications, two of which, both published in 1924, are important contributions to the history of Hampshire cricket. The first was The Hambledon Cricket Chronicle 1772-1796 by Ashley-Cooper with another noted historian EV Lucas adding an Introduction, while the second was rather more an A5pamphlet of 36 pages with semi-stiff boards, entitled simply Hampshire County Cricket – our first history and “published with the approval of the Hampshire County Cricket Club” at a cost of one shilling (5p). 

He warrants inclusion further for his research work on HS Altham’s A History of Cricket, while in 1927 he published a Christmas card of “Mead’s Hundreds: a Note” - Mead incidentally would score a further 48 centuries after 1927 (153 overall). There is a peculiarity with his work with Altham first published in 1925, in which Altham wrote of Ashley-Cooper’s help and “great kindness” since he “read through and made many corrections … (and) again and again …helped me on points of detail and policy”. He added that Ashley-Cooper’s “accuracy and … inexhaustible cricket learning present a standard after which all other cricket historians must despairingly aspire”. Oddly, in the revised Preface of a new edition in 1962, Altham acknowledged various contributors but omitted this reference to Ashley-Cooper.

In total it is said Ashley-Cooper wrote 103 cricket books and pamphlets and for more than 30 years he was responsible for the ‘Births and Deaths’ and ‘Cricket Records’ in Wisden. He was also a great collector; Irving Rosewater (1976) suggested it was only his huge body of printed works that “dwarfed his position as a collector”, when from the mid-1920s he was “the undisputed leader in the field” (24).

After the First World War Ashley-Cooper had access to the minutes and accounts of the legendary eighteenth century Hambledon Club which in the Foreword to his publication, he said were “now reproduced for the first time” (xiii). He opened his first chapter suggesting “the story of the Hambledon Club is one of the most remarkable in the whole history of cricket” and a century ago did his best to dispel a myth that nonetheless persists when he wrote

If Hambledon cannot strictly be regarded as ‘The Cradle of Cricket’ it can at least claim to have been the centre in which the game was first brought to a certain degree of perfection. (17)

Early in that chapter and without examining the point he also writes of the formation of the Hambledon Club and “its team”(my emphasis), which reminds us that the Hambledon Club (not Cricket Club) enjoyed a range of social activities, including but not exclusively cricket and a team which is now mostly recorded over that great period as ‘Hampshire’.

Ashley-Cooper explained the “decline” of the Hambledon Club from 1787 when “the chief amateurs and patrons” chose to move to the “convenient” London location and formed MCC, where “in Lord’s the leading professionals soon found a ready market for their talent” (20). He reveals also that during the early 1790s Hambledon’s members resigned regularly so that for example, at a meeting on 16 May, Mr Oliver, Mr Shakespear, Mr Boult, Col. Sherriff, Captain Thresher, Col. Hammond, Captain Linzee, Mr Hale and Lord Stawell (requested by Mr Ridge) all withdrew their memberships, while only the Hon. Captain Conway was elected to fill the gaps. One week later, no members attended on a day when the minutes reported “Rain’d, very cold”.

The entry “No Gentlemen” appears quite frequently, as well as variations such as “three members and six non-subscribers present”, but is perhaps best known on 21 September 1796 which is taken to be the end of the Club, 25 years after the first “Order of the Club”, listing the Steward and others Members present and the six Standing Toasts. 

Elsewhere, there are many fascinating details of life around 250 years ago in east Hampshire. In July 1773 we find an agreement that in future

Wicketts (sic) shall be Pitched at half an hour after Ten o’Clock in the morn. and the players that come after Eleven are to forfeit 3d each to be spent among those that come at the appointed time of Eleven.

A little while later, “Green Base” (sic) should be purchased to “Cover the seats of the Tent for the Ladies”. Further, we learnif in any discussion the President or in his absence the Steward require the topic to cease, any member “so disputing shall forfeit one Doz: of Claret to the Club”. That is by no means the only reference to claret or wine more generally.

Ashley-Cooper opened with his own “Survey” but for the most part he collected, edited and re-presented information from the time. He listed all the minutes verbatim, followed by the Match List including a column referring to entries in Scores and Biographies and “a few notes on the matches”. In the years since, more information has been discovered about the matches including additional games but the list provided a full foundation a century ago. Chapter Four lists “The Club Accounts”, from 1791, beginning with the names of Gentlemen Subscribers paying the annual membership of three guineas (£3.3s) each and adding frequent references to payment for the players. Chapter Five lists “every person of whom it can be said with certainty that he was a member of the Club” (143), followed (Chapter Six) by a biographical list of the Players. The book concludes with various brief appendices including the words to the club song and it is illustrated throughout with scenes around Hambledon, the Bat & Ball Inn, the ground, the players and key members. 

The Hambledon Cricket Chronicle remains one of the essential foundations of our understanding of early first-class cricket in Hampshire and Ashley-Cooper refers again to the days of Hambledon in the earliest history of the county club from the same year in which he pays attention to the years between the end of the Hambledon Club and 60+ years later the formation of Hampshire County Cricket Club before moving into the initial and rather fragmented first-class period until they entered the County Championship in 1895. Once again the publication is enhanced by a number of good black & white photographs including teams of 1888 and 1923, the grounds in Portsmouth, Bournemouth and a beautifully evocative centre spread of Southampton. There are images also of key figures including Sir Russell Bencraft, Major the Hon. LH Tennyson, Captain TO Jameson, Philip Mead and his fellow professionals Kennedy, Livsey, Brown, Bowell, Boyes, Newman plus illustrations of Bishop Ken who reported seeing cricket in Winchester in the mid-17th century and Thomas Chamberlayne the county club’s first Chairman. 

The impressive booklet covered a period of more than 150 years and in a few places was almost like an alternative Handbook with information about Hampshire memberships and a list of fixtures for 1924 - including two Club & Ground games in Basingstoke and the Isle of Wight. It also included eleven advertisements including on the back cover the sports shop in London Road, Southampton owned by Phil Mead and Walter Toomer (late of Southampton FC). 

Along with The Hambledon Cricket Chronicle, that Hampshire history was one of four county histories Ashley-Cooper produced in the one year of 1924 – the others, Somerset, Derbyshire and Gloucestershire, to which he added an Appendix updating a previous history of Kent. He was nothing if not prolific.

In addition to his extensive work for Wisden, Ashley-Cooper contributed many items to the magazines Cricket (1896-1911) and The Cricketer (from 1921) as well as the Athletic New Cricket Annual (from 1914). He was never particularly robust and when he died in Milford, Surrey in January 1932 the Annual noted cricket had “suffered a real loss” of an historian and statistician who, “in all his work … was meticulously and really marvellously accurate”. In the following year, Weston (1933) suggested he was at the time probably “the greatest Authority on the History of Cricket”.

Sources:

Weston, G Neville, 1933 Bibliography of the Cricket Works of the Late FS Ashley-Cooper, privately published.

Rosenwater I, 1976, Cricket Books: Great Collectors of the Past, privately published.

Wynne-Thomas P, 2003, FS Ashley-Cooper: A Biographical Sketch & Bibliography, Association of Cricket Statisticians & Historians.

Special thanks for his help to my HCH colleague & friend Glen Williams.

Dave Allen

August 2025

Next Book Sale Dates

Wednesday 24th and Thursday 25th September 2025

Utilita Bowl Club Shop from 10 am

Kedrun Laurie recently contacted us from France to donate her father's autograph book which has cricketers' signatures collected back in 1936 and 1937. Kedrun's father Ian was eleven years old in 1936 and  living in Bournemouth. The book contains autographs from former players representing Hampshire, Middlesex, Surrey, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Notts, Northants, India and New Zealand. We are extremely grateful to the Laurie family for this wonderful donation which certainly adds to our extensive collection of autographs in the Archive Room. There are so many famous names amongst them, including Phil Mead's on the left-hand photo below and Herbert Sutcliffe's on the Yorkshire page on the photo on the right. HCH's Dave Allen and Ray Stubbington are now busy identifying as many autographs as possible in this delightful book, in order to catalogue them for our collection.

This special annual event at the Utilita Bowl saw more than 30 former players attend a fine lunch put on by the club. Our very own Dave Allen was honoured by Rod Bransgrove with a lifetime achievement award. 

1975 was a memorable year, with a home Ashes series hot on the heels of the chastening experience in Australia the previous winter, when Jeff Thomson announced himself on the world stage. The first men's World Cup highlighted the increasing influence of one-day cricket, and for Hampshire fans the season brought their first ever one day title in the form of the John Player League.

John Winter's book guides the reader through the season - was it really 50 years ago - with invaluable player insights from Richard Lewis, Andrew Murtagh and the player who topped the Sunday bowling averages, John Rice. The book covers all of the matches and key players, but also, perceptively, recognises the importance of the television coverage, as it was via the weekly BBC2 broadcasts of a match in full that many fans first became aware of the sport, and where their love of county cricket was first formed. 

As a member of the Red Rose county, Hampshire's success in 1975 appears to me to be built on very similar foundations to Lancashire's title winning sides of 1969 and 1970. A respected captain, a strong team bond, excellent fielding (vital with so many matches resulting in tight finishes) and a sprinkling of overseas class to add that extra bit of quality. Whilst Lancashire boasted Lloyd and Engineer, Hampshire could parade Greenidge, Richards and Roberts.

Many happy memories of the John Player League relate to outground cricket (over 100 ground were used in the history of the league) and perhaps none are remembered more fondly than Darley Dale in the Peak District where Hampshire clinched the title. The crowd that day exceeded the population of the village, but the club wicket didn't pose too many problems for Greenidge and Richards who both posted half-centuries before Mottram and Rice ran through the Derbyshire batting to the delight of the visiting supporters. John's book brings this game back to life in wonderful detail.

For any supporters who have fond recollections of the John Player League, or indeed for younger fans wishing to learn about the early years of domestic one-day cricket, I can highly recommend "Arlott, Rice and Richards".

In 2004, Archivist Dr Tim J McCann published an award-winning History of 18th Century Sussex Cricket. He then began work on a similar project for neighbouring Hampshire, but sadly, he died in 2022 before the project was completed. In the summer of 2024, Tim's wife Alison gave a printed copy of this unfinished project to the Hampshire Records Office and then made a digital copy available to HCH Director Dave Allen. Since then, Dave has worked  on this project and the result is this fantastic new publication. 

The Archive Room is run by The Archive Room Committee of Hampshire Cricket Heritage which was established in November 2023.  The current members of that committee are Richard Griffiths, Ray Stubbington, Glen Williams and John Winter. Our aim is to re-organise this room over the next 12 months, cataloguing all its contents, with a view to making it more accessible to our HCH supporters in 2025. If you have anything that relates to Hampshire Cricket that you could donate to our growing Archive Room Collection, please just email us at hantscccheritage@gmail.com

If you wish to support Hampshire Cricket Heritage Ltd. in its work by becoming a Supporter, please complete the electronic Google form below. Alternatively, you will be able to obtain a paper copy of the Application Form from the Club Shop, from the middle of March onwards, which includes details of how to apply and indicates which details we just need from you. In order for all our records to be up to date and correct, we would ask that existing HCH Supporters who already joined us before 2020 also complete this form below.

We don't charge an annual fee to join, but we do hope that you can make a donation of £20 (or more - once or annually) in the knowledge that you will be making a contribution that will go towards the project undertaken by HCH Ltd. On the Supporters Page on this website, you will also be able to read about, during the season, some of the new acquisitions which have either been bought by your donations or which have been donated directly to the HCH Collection by our Supporters. Over the past twelve months, we have for example bought some limited copies of rare John Arlott books and ephemera relating to the 1961 Championship winning side.

For our Supporters we aim to send out a Supporters Newsletter in the form of an e-Magazine at least once a year. You will also be able to collect your HCH Supporters Pin Badge at any of the Book Sales held in the Club Shop during the season. In 2023 we were given rare scorecards, numerous books, valuable Hampshire Handbooks, prints, clothing and a very interesting cricket ball (used in a game where Phil Mead made yet another ton!) which have all gone into the Archive Collection. We are, of course, constantly looking for donations of any Hampshire Cricket articles of interest to add to our unique collection in the Archive Room in the Shane Warne Stand. 

Some of you will have enjoyed the chance to see some of the progress being made in that room during this winter's Members Tours with Dave Allen. We are holding our first Open Day in the Archive Room for all HCH supporters on Monday July 1st 2024.The plan is to continue to create more opportunities in 2025 - once the room  has been properly reorganised - for our HCH Supporters to visit the Archive Room. 

In order to join therefore, either please just complete the application form below by signing into Google and clicking on the word Form.  Please note you will not be able complete this electronic form without using Google. 

Google Application Form 

or complete the paper copy from the Club Shop and return it to us:

• either by posting it to Hampshire Cricket Heritage, with your donation as a bank transfer 

(HCH Account: 67818860 Sort Code 30-98-97), or as a cheque (made out to Hampshire Cricket Heritage Ltd.), addressed to the Archive Room, The Utilita Bowl, Botley Road, Southampton, S030 3HX

• or by dropping it off at the Club Shop - where you can pay your donation by card - in a sealed envelope addressed to Glen Williams, Hampshire Cricket Heritage Ltd. 

All of our HCH Publications will also be available throughout the year in the Club Shop to purchase. 

DOCUMENTING CHANGE: HAMPSHIRE’S CRICKET HISTORY

I am grateful for this opportunity to write about the historical work being undertaken at Hampshire Cricket as our contribution to a series on each of the counties in this journal.

At the end of the 2024 season, approaching my 75th birthday, I retired as the Historian, the public face of Hampshire Cricket, although as I shall reveal, that is not quite the end of my endeavours.

You will note that I name Hampshire Cricket. When I first became formally involved in preserving and presenting our history 30 years ago it was as a co-opted member of the Museum Sub-Committee of Hampshire County Cricket Club(HCCC), an organisation which ceased to exist shortly after our move to the then Rose Bowl, which held its inaugural first-class match in 2001. Since then Hampshire has been a limited company with members in name only and resembling rather more football season-ticket holders. The move from Northlands Road to the Bowl which now has its third full name (Utilita) in a quarter-of-a-century and the transfer of power from an elected committee to a Board makes our situation unique but our tale of heritage and history over that period might become more broadly applicable as we move into the days of 49%, Franchise take-overs and the like at other counties. 

I am no economist or business expert so I will leave that tale to others but I can relate something of how at Hampshire we have approached the representation of our history in a context different both in terms of environment and management from that of any other members’ county club, with a 19th century ground.

I was a Hampshire member from my ‘junior’ days in 1961 but only became involved in the formal work on our history in the mid-1990s, after I offered the club the loan of a small but interesting collection of Hampshire cricket memorabilia. This led to an invitation to become a seconded member of the Museum Sub-Committee from the Archivist Neil Jenkinson which was approved by the full committee to whom we were responsible. Other ‘Museum’ members back then were mostly also on our full committee, including our former amateur bowler and cricket chairman Charlie Knott, cricket historian Andrew Renshaw, Major Doulas Nation who once played a pre-war first-class match while serving in India and gentleman farmer Andrew Murdoch. 

The 30+ years since then have been an ‘interesting’ experience as I have gone from being the ‘bright young(ish) thing’ of the 1990s to the occasionally grumpy senior Historian in recent years. Given all the changes that have occurred along the way our experience over those thirty years is surely unique among county clubs not least in terms of the most pressing project which has been to find ways of sharing our history with members, supporters and at the ground at least, visitors. 

In my experience, the majority of cricket lovers love tales of the past but perhaps for most of them it is their past; the players, grounds, matches, seasons or series that have had most impact on their cricket-loving lives that provide the material of their memories. Cricket is a very rich source of such memories since it is accompanied by a plethora of facts and the process, entirely understandable, often affords great pleasure - especially when shared, since more than say football, watching cricket, in particular the longer forms, allows plenty of time for conversations.

The challenge for a county Historian is to acknowledge this particular form of engagement with the past, allowing the ground and publications to become a canvas on which to paint this picture. But should it be more than that? If the engagement I have described so far is to be seen as a kind of (often well-informed) nostalgia how is that different from ‘History’ and what are the implications of such a distinction for what is made public? What forms should be used to make the past public and hopefully relevant today?

When we arrived at the Rose Bowl on D Day 2000 for a 2nd XI game on the Nursery Ground the main pavilion and ground were still building sites and for financial reasons the pavilion remained incomplete for some time – with two more stands and the hotel added some years later. While there was very little money to create displays there was at least a blank canvas on which to work.

When the 2nd XI played that first match we were still Hampshire County Cricket Club with the historians reporting to the full Committee. It is perhaps interesting to reflect on the people who were then running affairs, for they all lived in the county and in many cases were, like Neil Jenkinson and me, Hampshire born-and-bred. The Chairman Brian Ford from Bournemouth was a third generation Hampshire Committee man, Bill Hughes, a main driving force on the new ground was a former Hampshire Colt and member of Hampshire Hogs CC, Chris Ayling the club’s GP was from Portsmouth, the Chief Exec, Tony Baker was a well-known Southampton cricketer who had played for the 2nd XI, while recent Cricket Chairmen Charlie Knott and Jimmy Gray were successful Southampton-born Hampshire cricketers. There were others with similar local backgrounds,

Does that matter? I am not sure but I think it is worth asking the question at the moment when we hear that Hampshire might well be bought by an Indian Franchise and it is a question that has exercised me in a different respect in recent years. The main historical project at Hampshire can be traced at least back to the mid-18th century with the inaugural first-class matches often involving Hampshire/Hambledon and a century later came the formation of the County Cricket Club (1863) and its successor Hampshire Cricket plc. But our new ground has in recent years also hosted two other professional organisations not called Hampshire: The Southern Brave in the Men’s Hundred competition and the Southern Vipers women’s sides. 

Their performances are these days recorded in the Hampshire Handbook with which I have been involved for many years although that part is dealt with by other people. Around the ground there are displays about the Vipers which they curate themselves and I have never had a conversation with anyone about whether they think the role of Hampshire’s Archivist/Historian should embrace these new formats and different team names. Should I continue to follow in detail the performances of Vince, Dawson and others in the Hundred, even when Dawson is playing for a team called London Spirit? If so to what extent? What is my role or that of the recently re-formed Hampshire Cricket Heritage (all men) in preserving and sharing the histories of regional women’s cricket, disabled sides, junior teams or the Academy, who this year won the Southern League for the first time? 

I have generally avoided engaging with these implicit questions, perhaps because there is always something else to deal with but maybe betraying my own areas of expertise and bias against the Hundred and non-county names for sides – none of that a secret! In retirement I can choose my projects but those questions remain for my successors and others elsewhere. I wonder for example, what view my colleagues at Sussex take of the notion that their county is part of this thing called ‘Southern Brave’? Do they maintain the records for Mills, Archer and perhaps the side? What is the role of a County Cricket Historian in the second quarter of the 21stCentury? As an historian must I always take the disinterested position even in a project in which I have a life-long emotional investment?

I think it is well-known that our early years at the Rose Bowl were to say the least precarious financially and while there was very little money to create displays there was at least that blank canvas on which to work and that was often an interesting project.

In the winter of 2000/1 we brought everything across from Northlands Road which had been rapidly reduced to a demolition site and much of our memorabilia was stored in a Portacabin where the car park now stands. Initially an outside company was brought in to frame lots of photographs and hang them around the ground but they knew nothing of our history and did this simply on aesthetic grounds. With others I have spent most of the last 20 years moving them, firstly to create some historical coherence but secondly to pursue an alternative more contemporary aesthetic, in line with the Bowl’s 21st century architecture. To be specific, wherever possible we took a thematic approach to wall displays removing old wooden frames and producing large Perspex displays about trophy successes, leading Test cricketers, notable other teams and individuals. With little money we held book sales from members’ donations and pursued sponsorship from supporters’ groups or more modest amounts from individual supporters. I particularly enjoyed succeeding in renaming the Atrium in honour of John Arlott, using the exposed white iron girders to display his quotes about the players he knew and loved, from Lord Tennyson through to the 1970s trophy winners. Each quote on its own girder was sponsored by a supporter.

Away from the ground we created one or two exhibitions for other sites, notably marking the 150th anniversary of the formation of the club in 2013 at the Hampshire County Archives in Winchester and this year the anniversary of the first known match in Portsmouth at the city’s Central Library. These displays were designed like the Perspex boards but less expensively on foamboard and for some years the 150th boards were displayed in the Atrium – a history of 150 years of men’s county cricket. They were removed a couple of years ago which means that these days it is not so easy to find much acknowledgement around the ground of the great achievements of Wynyard & Poore, Mead & Brown, Kennedy & Newman and others beyond living memory. 

In the past two or three years a new group of volunteers has arrived to succeed Stephen Saunders, Terry Crump and me in the re-formed Hampshire Cricket Heritage. Under Chair Richard Griffiths, John Winter, Glen Williams and Ray Stubbington have done a very fine job of properly organising the Archive which houses a Library, started post-war by Desmond Eagar, as well as many bats, balls, caps, stumps, trophies, photographs and scorecards. Both the latter have also been ‘digitised’ for easier use, not least on the brand new website at 

https://www.hampshirecountycricketheritage.co.uk/

One of our main projects for the winter, led by Ray, is to update the players’ A-Z which I published in two editions a few years ago and add that to the website for all to see. Ray is particularly adept at searching out information about births, deaths and other details online where there are of course so may remarkable resources. For myself, I give thanks constantly for the wonder that is Cricket Archive but at Hampshire we have another volunteer, Tigger Miles, whose statistical site is equally valuable to us:

https://hampshirecricket.net/

One of our key challenges has always been displaying the fascinating artefacts that we hold such as Wynyard’s record-breaking bat from 1897, ‘Butch’ White’s hat-trick ball of 1961, Barry Richard’s Champions cap of 1973 or the last (white) ball ever used at Northlands Road, signed and dated by Shane Warne. As Kit Harris noted in the 2024 edition of Wisden we have no museum or room of any kind in which to display such artefacts, so the Heritage website and a succession of shorter booklets - £5 each and numbering seven so far with more planned – have an important role. But how we would love to display more of our possessions – even if a formal museum has too many economic and organisational implications right now. For the time being, solid objects tend to appear at specific events including public talks.

So, what might come next? My first serious encounter with Hampshire cricket history at least 65 years ago was the ‘official’ history of the county club (1957) which stretched from Hambledon through about 200 years to the late 1950s and was written by three notable Hampshire historians, Harry Altham, Desmond Eagar and John Arlott, assisted in the statistics by Roy Webber. It was concerned almost entirely with men’s first-class cricket including the ‘great’ games at Hambledon but If we assume that the sharing of county histories is now broadening considerably beyond that focus, there are I think four key questions to be borne in mind as county historians or history groups plan future projects:

What is the anticipated or intended audience?

Who is communicating?

In what media and formats? 

Who & what is being represented?

Addressing those questions can help us maintain and develop inclusive strategies for sharing the most wonderful histories with growing numbers of cricket enthusiasts and to finish I would like to give particular consideration to one particular group of ‘enthusiasts’ who seem to get quite a bit of media attention these days but are not obviously engaged in preserving and producing the histories of our game.

I am fairly typical of the breed of current cricket historians in age, background and disposition as part of that shrinking group that can recall watching county cricket when it consisted only of first-class matches – indeed I watched for ten years before there was more than the occasional limited-overs Gillette Cup match. The influence of those formative years is strong in my endeavours and that is one reason why it is time to move on and hand over.

But in the longer term, I am thinking of the so-called  ‘new’ audience of families and particularly young people who we are told have been attracted to cricket in recent years. There might be among them and across two or three generations, cricket enthusiasts who could be encouraged to enjoy the past – however recent – alongside the present and ensure that the future for the historical project is secure, whatever its subject matter, whatever its forms and audience. I wonder how we might ensure that the future of cricket’s many histories is in safe hands in our digital, AI and multi-format future?

Dave Allen

September 2024

Take the ‘metro’ to an outground and don’t just keep the ticket!

Today is Friday August 2nd 2024; tomorrow it will be exactly 50 years ago to the day that I made one of the best decisions in my 61-year old life: I went to watch my first ever day of professional cricket at Portsmouth. By way of a kind of celebration, I am off to watch Warwickshire in a 50 over white-ball game at Rugby School in the Metro Bank Trophy. As an outground, it is simply a stunning venue. It also helps that there is a packed crowd of over 3,000, sitting out on white plastic chairs, enjoying the beautiful and hot, late-summer sunshine. There is, though, also a hint of autumn or two, with a few leaves on the outfield; the rugby posts are already up in place on the adjacent outfield, ready for the start of the new school year early next month. 

It is a school like no other in the country with its own novel and unique contribution to British sporting life. The rugby memorial on the edge of the 1st Team outfield, adjacent to one of the largest and most beautiful trees at any cricket ground in the world, is a must to visit for any visitor here. Thomas Hughes’s “Tom Brown’s Schooldays” famous 1857 novel feels now very much a book of its time and, as a result, perhaps less necessary to visit on a winter’s evening. Every outground on the county circuit retains its appeal, particularly for the first time visitor. This is now my 53rd different ground watching at least one of the eighteen first-class counties during these past fifty years. From Basingstoke to Blackpool, Beckenham to Bournemouth, Canterbury to Colwyn Bay, Cardiff to Colchester, Chesterfield to Cheltenham, the journey continues to be a complete joy. The Hundred has definitely helped me in that regard, as this 50 over competition strives to find more temporary - if sometimes more upmarket and atmospheric - homes. Never mind being persuaded to get on The Hundred band-wagon or runaway train leaving from Platform 9 and three-quarters, just jump on the ‘metro’ for Sedbergh, Scarborough, Neath, Kibworth, Gosforth, Guildford, Northwood and Nettleworth for not just this, but, hopefully, the next few summers!

Warwickshire were also one of the two teams playing back then for my first game in August 1974 in a three-day Championship game. They were a team packed full of international class cricketers. The home team also happened to have three world class legends in their line-up that day with Richards, Greenidge and Roberts. Hampshire were reigning County Champions that season, with a rich mix of outstanding county professionals and a brilliant captain, Richard Gilliat. Today’s opponents for “The Bears” of Warwickshire are Surrey. There are two former international players on show in Foakes and Sibley, but otherwise it is a question of diving into my Playfair regularly to learn more about a host of promising youngsters - fresh from their own schooldays - on both teams. The venues are also linked, fifty years apart, in that my first ever ground at Burnaby Road in Old Portsmouth remains to this day the home of United Services Rugby. For the last 25 years, Hampshire have ceased to play there. For the twenty-five before that it was home from home for me  -  along with Northlands Road, May’s Bounty and Dean Court.

Today I made my way to the ground from the station with a best friend; we have both travelled into Rugby on separate trains. They run on time, thankfully, because I can’t relax until I complete the most important task of any day at the cricket. News overnight comes in that Hampshire are due to be bought by GMR - which has wholly or joint-owned Delhi Capitals since the creation of the IPL in 2008 - and my mind is racing about what changes that means for the future. The only thing that trumps those thoughts, however, is whether there will be a scorecard available to buy and then fill out neatly for today’s game. Before you stop reading this article immediately and condemn me for a level of disproportion, nerdiness and obsession that is mildly disturbing, please let me offer my solid and robust forward defence with my wide Ben Warsop - or better still - Jumbo bat. My truly heartfelt joy is that there are proper scorecards available - free of charge today - in the temporary Rugby School Club Shop (and catering van). It means I can now relax properly and acquaint myself with all these recent alumni from schools around the country who are just about to step onto this lush green outfield. I also have my special keepsake to archive away in a private collection, whose value only fellow avid collectors would fully appreciate. 

Picture postcards, personal diaries, football programmes, love-letters, sepia family photos and cricket scorecards are all the stuff of wonderful nostalgia, where intrinsic value trumps monetary value every time. When asked by slightly nonplussed friends and family what the attraction is for collecting Test and County Cricket scorecards, it is so hard for me to express that in only a short text like this, let alone a few sentences. In the course of this article, the appeal of purchasing a scorecard as the first thing I do every time I go through a turnstile or entrance gate to watch a game of County or International cricket will be explained. It is sadly not a given, though, as a continuing pleasure going forwards. Scorecards are threatened with being consigned as much to the past as the exploits they record for posterity - especially when filled out accurately with accompanying key notes recording quirks, landmarks and boundary counts. 

Just over a year ago the First Ashes Test, in this very county at Edgbaston, was capturing the imagination of the whole cricket watching public across the world. Crawley’s imperious cover drive to the first ball of the day, Brook’s freakish dismissal, Root’s majestic hundred, Stokes’ incredibly audacious declaration were just a few of the many highlights on Day One when I still felt slightly deflated watching in the Wyatt Stand. The fact Warwickshire and the ECB had decided not to issue a scorecard for that game left me with an irrational emptiness that left me feeling like football programme collectors now attending a game at the likes of Blackburn, Millwall or Reading (where they have ceased to be printed). Thankfully, someone in the know has also obviously changed that back now a year later at Edgbaston, in order that the devoted County Members are once again able to buy them at Warwickshire home games. 

Even more than match tickets - which have also been collected by this writer for the past fifty years - they are a fantastic reminder of all those past games that you have been privileged enough to attend in person. Somehow they contribute to that enduring visceral feeling of knowing you were there to witness history being made. They are the tangible evidence which help archive and then revive memories of just being there at the game. Watching sport on TV is also one of my favourite past times; actually being at the game and ground in person, however, has always been a matter of taking that fun and enjoyment to a completely different level. It is like comparing a rich Italian meal on the Amalfi Coast, sitting outside a local family restaurant while bathing in beautiful sunshine under an azure sky, with fuelling in a hurry on a warmed up ciabatta in the microwave at home. In a nutshell, I was really there and have recorded that I was there. 

Cricket scorecards - unlike football programmes which contain so much more information ahead of the game - have always meant so much more to me when they have been neatly completed and then filed away in the right place, long after the action on the field has finished. If duly completed with all relevant details, they serve to chronicle the factual details and personal landmarks achieved by the twenty two players in that particular game, preserved for posterity in the scribe’s memory bank. Consequently, collecting scorecards from games that I haven’t attended has never quite had the same appeal. Unsurprisingly, they also show how my handwriting has first matured and then definitely declined in terms of legibility through time! 

Back in August 1974 I did something you will probably hardly see anywhere at a County Cricket match anywhere in the country this summer. I was only doing what generations of lads did before me, mind you. Aged 11, I walked twenty minutes to the local train station, caught the train to Portsmouth and Southsea station, spent 8 hours at the cricket watching Hampshire for the very first time and then caught the train home, arriving back after supper. It would almost be a Child Protection issue now, if a child of that age did likewise in 2024. Embracing that freedom, whilst sitting amongst adults and concentrating for the three two hour sessions of play, it did wonders for your powers of concentration and understanding of all the special facets of the game. Admittedly, with Barry Richards at one end and Gordon Greenidge at the other for some of that time, there could be no excuse.  That 5p blue first scorecard, for a top of the table Championship game against Warwickshire at the start of Portsmouth Cricket Week, began my collection. The 121 partnership between BAR and CGG in Hampshire’s only innings on the way to an easy victory makes it a unique keepsake. 

What it did mean as youngster, at that time, was you had three choices: (1) you sat and scored every ball in your own scorebook (which I preferred to do bizarrely for the JPL games on tv); (2) you completed the fall of wickets (and score at the end of each over in the limited over games) on your scorecard purchased before the start of play; (3) you did neither and nipped to play at the back of the stand when the action was less compelling. Since the scoreboard on all the grounds only gave the scores of the two batsmen at the crease, way before any mobile phone had been invented - let alone purchased - your scorecard acted as record of all that previously happened that day. When there were the full 120 overs in the day at Gillette Cup Games that was a huge amount to record and recall. In other words, for most on the ground, scorecards were an aide-mémoire. For me, they were a prized possession, just like my growing football programme and pre-decimalised coin collections. It was the age of Green Shield Stamps, Esso Cup Coins and Brooke Bond Cards after all. 

Ever since the enforced Covid break, the printing of cricket scorecards to buy at our county cricket grounds has become a bigger lottery: should the  time-honoured tradition be respected for loyal match going supporters, or will anybody notice if we save a few hundred quid on our very tight balance sheets? Scorecards have carried adverts on the reverse in all the time I have been collecting them, but maybe that revenue stream is harder to tap into in modern times. The fact that an electronic version - as an alternative to the printed card copy - gives you the same information, but without any of the same sense of uniqueness or permanence, spells “real danger”. 

We are constantly challenged in our daily lives with what we keep and what we throw away. If we do keep it, why are we keeping it and how do we store it? The pace of technological change constantly asks questions of how we adapt and embrace opportunities to save what really matters in a more accessible form for others. Do we need to retain the physical article, when there is already an electronic copy? I would argue, like the best First Day Cover or specialist mini library, they are enhanced as a collection or series by every latest similar addition or edition. They have, as previously mentioned, no monetary value worth speaking of, even with a precious few signed by the leading protagonist, but in terms of personal importance, they remain a prize collection. 

As the latest Ashes series last season demonstrably showed, it is getting increasingly harder to buy a scorecard at a professional cricket match in England. Were Warwickshire for the opening Test in July 2023 at Edgbaston, making the large contingent of Australian fans feel even more at home? Could they not have seen that such a great finish deserved a fine scorecard? There is of course no tradition down under for ever issuing scorecards at Ashes games. Why would we now suddenly start - 140 years later -  following suit? Either through tough economics in the county game, changing spectator habits or the need to move towards an electronic version of previously printed material, they have now become an “endangered species” over here. The Lord’s One Day Finals had previously had match programmes (as well as scorecards), even before the introduction of the John Player Programmes in the mid- 1970’s, but they just don’t quite hold the same appeal. 

Last summer, my Headingley Ashes Test Scorecard for the Third Test - with England now 2-0 down in the series - took on particularly special significance. It very nearly also doesn’t exist. A couple of weeks ahead of the game, I took a phone call from a cricket watching friend. He is first and foremost an avid collector of scorecards, but he also engages in a huge amount of voluntary work at both his beloved Hampshire and at Headingley, near where he lives. While the rest of the cricketing world were debating the ifs, buts and maybes around the Carey/Bairstow incident, we had bigger fish to fry in the north. Never mind a few of the more entitled Lord’s members stepping beyond any acceptable line, our big discussion on the phone revolved around the layout and format of a homemade Ashes Scorecard for the 3rd Ashes Test to go on sale only in the Yorkshire Museum. All profits from its sales would go to the Yorkshire Cricket Foundation supporting charitable work in the wider Yorkshire area. For five times the price there would, of course, be a less than glossy, expensive match programme on sale, with over half the contents exactly the same as the match programmes on sale at all the other four Ashes Tests.

The discussion initially centered around likely line-ups for both teams, with injuries and form making it a difficult call. In the end, CR Woakes and  MA Wood came into the England side with devastating effect. Australia were to make three changes with MR Marsh lighting up Day One with 118 off 118 balls. Limited by certain parameters of what could be printed, we decided against putting the counties and states next to the players' names, as they do at Lord’s with their scorecards. What we did though was add the heading THE ASHES, having been spared the need to splash the sponsor’s name for this series across the top. Each player had his full initials before the surname and his national team number after it. That of course was not always the case on either count. The distinction of amateurs and professionals was denoted at different grounds, either by the inclusion of initials or the position of those initials either before or after the surname. 

Imagine my joy then a year on for my Hampshire Scorecard Collection: Warwickshire had started issuing proper scorecards again for Championship matches, and not just pieces of paper. In a far less rarefied atmosphere than an Ashes Test - at the end of Day Three of the Warwickshire v Hampshire County Division One clash at Edgbaston in June 2024 - my completed scorecard for the game now records that Ashes Headingley star, CR Woakes, had a tough day back in the office. Hampshire declared on 453-6 from 117 overs in which he remained wicketless. He did though bowl 19 very tidy overs on his return after a break from the game. Of far greater statistical significance is a record stand of 255 for the sixth wicket by two greats of the modern Hampshire era, JM Vince and LA Dawson. My written notes at the bottom of the scorecard document that Vince  scored an unbeaten 166 off 197 balls, which was his 29th first-class century, while Dawson’s 120  from 157 balls, was his 15th. The previous record for the sixth wicket for Hampshire against Warwickshire in the County Championship had stood for 96 years. Two more Hampshire greats of the early 20th Century, Phil Mead and Jack Newman, had added 251 together at Bournemouth in a game Hampshire won by 8 wickets. 

The reason why this is so significant is I have waited 50 years since I saw my only other Hampshire first class record partnership against Warwickshire. Bob Stephenson and Mike Taylor added 124 crucial runs in the first innings for the eight wicket back then at Burnaby Road in that top of the table clash. It is a record which still stands today. The record for the ninth wicket for Hampshire against Warwickshire is far older, far larger and in some ways far more famous: 101 years ago, CP Mead (222) and WR de la C Shirley (64) added 197 in Hampshire’s 511. Hampshire won the game by an innings, exactly a year after winning at Edgbaston in that legendary comeback game where they had been bowled out for just 15 in the first innings. Oh to have been lucky enough to have been there on the ground  in Birmingham June 1922 and bought that scorecard! 

Today’s game is a minor modern classic of its own for my scorecard collection. Surrey managed to take the game to the last ball of the day, needing four to win. That seemed highly improbable even at the start of the last over, with the traditional rabbit followed by the ferret (numbers 10 and 11 both new to the game and to the crease) still needing 20. Chasing down Warwickshire’s 311-9 in their fifty overs, Surrey amazingly only lost by 3 runs in the end. Dom Sibley’s 149 was eventually in a losing cause, but was a knock appreciated and applauded by both sets of supporters, who have seen him take far fewer risks for both their respective teams in the past.

No scorecard can, of course, reveal all the minutiae of every game, nor indeed any of the back story, intrigues or full context of any particular game in any particular competition in any particular era. However, they can serve as a wonderful reminder of that innings, catch, run-out, partnership, dismissal or spell which you can only say with absolute certainty that you were there to see when the completed evidence is always neatly filed and ready at hand. My scorecard collection of only the games I have been there to see is a treasure trove of memories that include last ball finishes in a Lord’s final between Hampshire and Warwickshire, too many Hampshire last ball semi-final cup defeats to mention, Botham’s ballistics, Gower’s grace, Greenidge’s greatness, Anderson’s accuracy and Hampshire heroes who have given me so much pleasure for half a century. It also includes that final day at Headingley in 2019 when Leach made 1 and his mate at the other end smashed Australia to all parts of Leeds. Being in the Western Terrace that day with my cricket-loving family was priceless; my match ticket and neatly-completed scorecard are both truly great keepsakes. 

What Surrey would have given for the last ball of the game to be smashed on the up through extra cover for four to win the game today! Somehow certain names and initials, certain numbers and scenarios, certain records and near misses often come to mind, either when I complete the scorecard after the game at home, or when I browse through my collection on a winter’s evening. Electronic devices may be the way forward when paying for one, but I still need my scorecard to remain a physical object to acquire wherever first-class cricket is played in this country. T20 Finals Day has been a lost cause for a number of years in this regard, but maybe someone at Edgbaston or the ECB will read this article and see the light! As a Hampshire fan, desperately willing every season to see your team win their first County Championship Title since you began watching them, you have to remain the eternal optimist! 50 years ago this week, after my first two games, they were 31 points clear as reigning Champions with five games to go. Unlike today’s beautiful weather in Rugby, the rain fell and fell and the rest is history.

The final point to add is that my scorecard collection will eventually be donated to Hampshire Cricket Heritage, which is housed in the Archive Room of the Shane Warne Stand at the Utilita Bowl. 

2024 Hampshire Cricket Heritage Annual Report – November 2024

This has been a busy and rewarding year for the small team of volunteers helping to run Hampshire Cricket Heritage, under the Chairmanship of Richard Griffiths. We have doubled the number of HCH supporters this year: we now have more than eighty people receiving our monthly email bulletin from David Ackland, our membership secretary, during the season. They have all donated to our cause in some way or another. That number now also includes a few former players, after we helped with the organisation of an extremely enjoyable Former Players Reunion Lunch at the Utilita Bowl at the end of June. Details on how to join HCH are on our new website, using this link:

https://www.hampshirecountycricketheritage.co.uk/Hampshire-Cricket-Heritage/how-to-join-hch

The driving force behind so much that is great at HCH for more years than he cares to admit, Dave Allen, has been busier than ever with his research and writing. Dave is working jointly, for example, with Ray Stubbington on updating the Hampshire Cricketers A-Z. Ray’s role has been to link a photograph of each player to Dave’s text. HCH has published three more booklets this year, which are all priced £5, and they have each sold well. Stephen Saunders’ Ordained Hampshire Cricketers was followed by John Winter’s A Glorious Week - Hampshire v Warwickshire and Hampshire v Worcestershire in August 1974. The third booklet, published in August and written by Dave Allen, celebrated the 10th Anniversary of Hampshire winning the Second Division Title and is called - Going up! Dave is currently deep in research about 18th Century Hampshire Cricket for an exciting new publication due out in 2025. For more details on all our publications and how to obtain them, use this link:

https://www.hampshirecountycricketheritage.co.uk/Hampshire-Cricket-Heritage/hch-publications

Glen Williams and Ray Stubbington have been hard at work re-organising and cataloguing many of our collections in the Archive Room in the Shane Warne Stand at the Utilita Bowl, as we seek to make the winter Hampshire Members’ Tours ever more interesting. They have also taken receipt of some wonderful Hampshire cricket related donations this year, including a screen which has some of the oldest cricket scorecards ever produced. This famous screen, which has been in the possession of the Butler family of Hambledon for seven generations is covered with the original scores of the matches of the Hambledon Club from the year 1777 down to the break-up of the Club in 1788, (when it was absorbed into the Hampshire County). Having previously been housed at Lord’s, it is now on permanent loan with HCH. To learn more, just click here:

https://www.hampshirecountycricketheritage.co.uk/supporters-page/supporter-donations-to-the-hch-collection

Two Second Hand Cricket Book Sales, held in May and August - overseen by Glen and run by the whole team - at The Club Shop again proved a valuable source of income for us to be able to make some more important purchases for our growing collection. These include limited edition signed monographs about former Hampshire players, written by John Arlott.

Finally, we have been pleased with the reception for the new Hampshire Cricket Heritage Website. I have posted new material every week on a wide range of themes relating to the heritage and history of Hampshire Cricket. I have also kept a weekly diary running through the season documenting the Club’s eventual second place finish in the County Championship:

https://www.hampshirecountycricketheritage.co.uk/memories/johns-journal-of-the-2024-season

One of the new weekly features for the close season is a section entitled My Favourite Game - 75 Not out! It is a celebration of Dave Allen reaching 75 this October and the plan is for 75 current players, former players or cricket supporters to pick and write about their favourite ever Hampshire game where they were there on the ground. Andrew Murtagh and John Rice have set the ball rolling for the former players and you can read more at:

https://www.hampshirecountycricketheritage.co.uk/memories/my-favourite-game

Next year, we are already planning more publications and more ways to share our growing collection with cricket supporters via the website. Any visitor to the recently named Utilita Bowl will be able to see so many of the displays created by Dave Allen already, and it is that tradition we will also seek to build upon. Our eventual dream and stated aim, of course, is a Club Museum at the ground, but in the meantime, we will endeavour to make the existing Archive Room a better resource centre and small display space for our HCH supporters. 

John Winter

HCH Website Creator and Editor

In the first week of October 2024, we were given - on permanent loan - a truly prized artefact for our growing Hampshire Cricket collection. 

It was previously housed in the Lord's Museum.

Mark Butler and his family have lived for 7 generations in Hambledon, until the house was sold in 2022. One of the more valuable artefacts in the house was a screen with a lot of old score cards, including one when Hambledon defeated the rest of England in 1777, thanks to the skills of the likes of John Small and Richard Nyren. His family has been very concerned that such an important part of cricket’s history should never be lost, particularly as at is still in such good condition. The screen was housed at Lords for some time (back in the 90’s), but the then new curator had different plans, so it was returned to their Hambledon home. Their thought has always been that it remains part of Hampshire history, and Mark therefore contacted Hampshire Cricket Heritage via e-mail last month for us to take custody of it. Not only has the Butler family very kindly donated it to HCH, Mark even dropped it off with us at the Utilita Bowl - see picture of Mark above.  We can't say thank you enough for the culture of giving that now exists towards Hampshire Cricket Heritage and we are only too delighted to take receipt of this unique screen from the extremely generous Butler family. They have also provided information on the screen for us to publish on our Website. 

The Website for All Hampshire Cricket Heritage Supporters

Welcome to our new website for Hampshire Cricket Heritage Supporters. We relaunched this site ahead of the 2024 season because we want to provide you with a treasure trove of material on the history of cricket played by and in Hampshire over the past 300 years. We hope to add new content each month over the next few years. We have set most of the title pages up, at this stage, showing what we want to populate  - under the tab headings across the Home Page which spell HAMPSHIRE. The first few articles, already posted under various headings, should give you an idea of what we ultimately want to create for you. 

Hampshire Cricket Heritage is based in the Archive Room in the Shane Warne Stand at the ground. We are currently six months into a three year project to reorganise completely the amazing collection in that room. Those HCC members who have attended the Club's inaugural official Members' Stadium Tours this winter will already have visited us for the first time, under Dave Allen's guidance, as part of that tour. 

It is certainly our intention to engage far more closely, from now on, with our own HCH  Supporters who paid to join HCH before Covid-19. Whether you have always loved following Hampshire Cricket and signed up in the first year in 2019 as HCH Supporters, or are just new to following the county side for the first time last season, we hope you find plenty of interest on this site. If, as hopefully will be the case, you do want to find out more, meet us and join or rejoin Hampshire Heritage as a current HCH Supporter, you will  be able to read details on how to do this by clicking on the How to Join HCH Tab under the Home section on this site.

While viewing the growing sections over the next twelve months on this site - under the ARCHIVE ROOM Tab - about the various parts of the HCH collection, we hope you can all appreciate why we want to encourage future donations. Our collective aim is for this collection of Hampshire Cricket Memorabilia and Ephemera to continue to grow to be the finest of its kind in existence anywhere in the world. We also want to share it far more with others who really appreciate connecting with any aspect of Hampshire Cricket Heritage.

Writing on behalf of the dedicated and newly formed very active team of HCH Volunteers, Dave Allen, Richard Griffiths, David Ackland, Glen Williams, Ray Stubbington and myself, we all hope very much you enjoy this new resource on Hampshire Cricket. We also look forward very much to meeting many of you each year at one of our Book Sales in the Club Shop at a Championship game in May and August.  

Enjoy, in the meantime, beginning to engage with our new website content over the next few months and if you have any feedback or questions for us please get in touch at hantscccheritage@gmail.com.

John Winter

HCH Website Editor and HCH Archivist