"Orrsome" hundred in Metro Bank 

Week Twenty:  Beginning Monday August 18th 2025

Such is the nature of cricket that back-to-back games can have very contrasting narratives and outcomes for the same side. Hampshire's away trip at Worcester saw wickets tumble regularly for the visitors in the first innings. The power play was a non-event, once Hampshire were reduced to 14-2 in the third over. This meant there was no chance for any batting momentum or pressure to be put back on the bowlers. At 121-5, with the departure of both Gubbins and then Mayes, the game, in truth, ceased to be a contest. To make matters worse, a hand injury for poor Joe Weatherley looked very painful and ominous for the rest of his season when he retired hurt. There was, though, the opportunity for Ben Allison to mop up the tail and leave his mark on the match for the home side. Returning in his second spell from the Diglis End, he broke the Prest/Organ partnership (62 runs in 12 overs) and finished with career-best List A figures of 6-35. His diving return catch to remove Prest was the highlight. Equally impressive to the eye - though certainly less rewarded in the bowling analysis (1-33 off 7 overs) on the final scorecard - Jack Home looks a real prospect. What he lacks in height, he more than makes up with heart, skill and a very purposeful approach to the wicket. Another impressive young performer on the day for Worcestershire Rapids was Ethan Brooks. Replying to Hampshire's 194 all out in 41.5 overs, he came in at the fall of Brett D'Oliveira's wicket at 126-3 and played as if it was a T20 game. His bright and breezy 35 from just 24 balls included ramps and switch hits; it also included some fine traditional cuts and drives that suggested he can play all formats. The game had no second innings drama or jeopardy because the Rapids cruised home with 5 wickets to spare and nearly ten overs left. Unbeaten Hampshire had come second best in all three disciplines against a Worcestershire side who deservedly went top of the group. Jake Libby may have made only 32 (from 56 balls), but that is now the best part of 500 runs he has scored against Hampshire in the last two months.

Just two days later at an equally sunny Southampton, the boot thankfully was very much on the other foot. This time Hampshire returned to winning ways in the Metro Bank 50 Over competition: the outcome was never in doubt from very early on, once the side batting first lost early wickets. Mind you having Kyle Abbott back always means the ball is generally on top in the first ten overs of any game. Young Ben Mayes kept to him for only the second time and took the first two catches, when Abbott removed Holland and then Lewis Hill with just 26 on the board. Budinger played aggressively for his 65, before he was again caught by Mayes, smartly standing-up to Organ. Just as Hampshire couldn't do bat their allotted overs at Worcester, Leicestershire were bowled out within their 50 overs. All the bowlers chipped in, with Andrew Neal again serving notice that his left-arm spin is not out of place at this level. He finished with 2-43 from 10 very tidy overs. Brad Wheal was also recalled after injury on the same day England picked Sonny Baker (together with Liam Dawson) for their forthcoming T20 series. Wheal, Jack, Kelly, Currie, Turner, Baker and Lumsden are all being tutored currently by the master Abbott. The hope of all Hampshire fans is that Kyle's legacy will be honoured with their continuing development that benefits both Hampshire and England for many years to come. Leicestershire, who have beaten Hampshire in the final stages of the past two year's competitions, posted 252.

Gubbins and Orr soon went about making that score look well below par on a good wicket and fast outfield. Their running between the wickets was a real feature of the partnership early on. Crisp calling and clever angles created ensured the frequent rotation of strike. They were both also able to hit the gaps for regular boundaries on both sides of the wicket. The difference between these two left-handers is that Orr plays with slightly more risk. He commits early to the square drive through backward point or the pick up shot over mid-wicket, whereas Gubbins (with less back-lift) serenely pierces the field in the extra cover and mid-on area regularly and with true conviction. They complement each other superbly. The scoring rate never drops below 6 and over in a partnership of 202. The game is as good as over when they are finally parted off the first ball of the 37th over. The only surprise is that Gubbins misses out on a hundred. His annoyance at departing to an acrobatic catch at backward point by Budinger is there for all in an appreciative crowd to see. Two days earlier at Worcester, he had marched off the field and up the steps to the pavilion at a very brisk pace: his annoyance with the lbw decision could not have been conveyed more clearly. Here, with 81 to his name, he has to accept it was a fine catch and the job is also very nearly done. He has also seen Ali Orr make his first List A century for Hampshire. That hundred came from just 125 balls and included nine 4's and a 6. When Orr fell with five runs needed, at 248 for a magnificent 131, he was given a fine ovation by a good holiday crowd. Gubbins, Weatherley and Orr have now all made dominant hundreds in comfortable wins in this competition. 

The winning habit continued three days later at the Kia Oval where Hampshire have enjoyed the better of each of the fixtures in all three formats this summer. Wins for Hampshire in South London have never come with the frequency of buses on the Harleyford Road - made famous back in the day by Henry Blofeld's Test Match Special commentaries - and so they continue to remain prized and often memorable. This latest victory, against an admittedly under-strength Surrey side, was one for the ages. Hampshire were dominant from ball one, fielded superbly, combined exciting youth with great experience with the ball, had all the best players on show, batted with authority (and disdain at times) to win at a canter again. Whereas the T20 victory was won in early June on DLS by 15 runs, this 50 over game was all wrapped up before Hampshire had batted (in bright sunshine) for less than 20 overs. The margin of victory was by 9 wickets and the manner of defeat was emphatic. 

After Hampshire won the toss and inserted the hosts, Kyle Abbott did what he always does best: ran in hard, hit the top of off stump nearly every ball, kept it tight with an attacking field, and above all set the tone - building the pressure on openers Burns and Thomas from ball one. He was backed up with fine bowling from recalled seamer James Fuller (back off Hundred duty), inexperienced slow left-arm spinner Andrew Neal and the very pacy 16-year-old Manny Lumsden. Surrey lost wickets regularly and were shot out for 160 in 46.3 overs. Fuller took the last wicket to finish with 4-34. Skipper Nick Gubbins then anchored a very one-sided chase with 87 not out from 60 balls. He lost fellow opener Orr at 54 in the tenth over. Just nine more overs later, he was walking off with Fletcha Middleton for Hampshire’s fourth win in five Group A matches. The win was clinched with a massive 30.5 overs to spare and certainly boosts the ambitions of qualification for the Metro Bank One-Day Cup knock-out stages at the back end of next week. Middleton had a few sighters before a superb lofted drive for 6 over long off meant he was up and running with Gubbins. Hampshire's number 3 finished unbeaten on 35 (from 24 balls) in an unbroken second wicket stand of 108 in those explosive 9.3 overs. Crucially, this improved Hampshire's run rate in a winning cause and a competitive group. Gloucestershire still top the table - having won all five game so far - though with an inferior run rate to Hampshire, who moved to 16 points from 5 games. Poor Surrey paceman Nathan Barnwell had a day to forget: he was thrashed for 50 from his three overs, with Gubbins twice pulling him for six in an opening over costing 21. The captain hit three sixes and 13 fours in all, in front of a near-5,000 crowd, becoming the only player in the country so far to pass 400 runs in this competition in 2025. 

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

New for this month : July 2025 

Dave Allen was honoured for all his services and devotion to Hampshire Cricket Heritage with the Rose and Crown Award by Rod Bransgrove on Sunday 29th June 2025. The only other recipient of this lifetime achievement award is Tim Tremlett. Rod paid tribute to Dave's unique contribution, presenting him with this signed shirt from the club. The significance of 59 is that Dave first's game watching Hampshire was at Portsmouth in 1959.

More than 30 former players attended the 2025 reunion at the Utilita Bowl on Sunday June 29th 2025. They were all introduced to the crowd on Day One of the Worcestershire Championship game. Barry Richards was interviewed on the outfield after the official club photos were taken.  

New for this month : June 2025 

Our latest HCH Publication celebrates 50 Years since Hampshire won their first one-day title. With the help of former key players from that team - John Rice, Andrew Murtagh and Richard Lewis - this is the full account of every game in that John Player League success in 1975. The Introduction is written by Dave Allen. The 84-page booklet, written by John Winter, will be available for £5 in the Club Shop from Sunday 29th June and at the next HCH Book Sale on 22nd July at the Utilita Bowl. 

New for this month : June 2025

Hampshire's Liam Dawson and Tim Tremlett have given special interviews in recent weeks with HCH about their favourite Hampshire games. Tim's game is a memorable one from 1985 at Taunton. For Liam, this is the first of five pieces to appear this summer on this website by members of his family, marking both his  richly deserved selection as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 2025 and his inclusion in the latest England T20 Squad.

New for this month : May 15th2025 

Hampshire's Liam Dawson does a special interview with HCH about his favourite Hampshire one-day game. This is the first of five pieces to appear this summer on this website by members of Liam's family, marking his  richly deserved selection as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 2025.

New for this month : May 2025 

Hampshire's Liam Dawson has been named in the 2025 Wisden as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year

Read more about Liam's achievement as well as Hampshire's fine start to the season in John's Journal for the 2025 Hampshire season using the link below

Two new My Favourite Games from HCH's David Ackland and Hampshire's fine Championship winning fast bowler Bob Herman - see My Favourite Game under the Memories Tab on this site

New for this month : April 2025 

Hampshire Cricket in the Eighteenth Century

Edited by Timothy J McCann with Dave Allen (see note below by clicking on this arrow)

Price £20  - available in the Hampshire Club Shop 

Please note that all of our HCH Supporters can purchase for £15

Date for Your Diary: The first HCH second-hand Book Sale of the new season at the Utilita Bowl will be on Days Two and Three of the Yorkshire game on April  5th  and 6th 2025 in the Club Shop. If you want to donate or buy, come along and join us at anytime on those two days. We will be open from 10.30 onwards. As well as books, there will be pictures and some Hampshire clothing items for sale.

New for this month : March 2025 

Number 14 in our series of 75 for My Favourite Hampshire Game has been written this month by former player, Jonathan Ayling. The special game for him at Maidstone in 1987 is featured below. 

Number 15 in our series of 75 for My Favourite Hampshire Game has been written this month by John Winter. This record-breaking game, played at Northlands Road in Southampton in July 1975, is also featured below. 

The series My Favourite Hampshire Game can be found under the MEMORIES Tab above on this site. You can also use the link below (in dark blue) to take you to this page of the site. 

We also have Terry Crump's latest recollection from a special visit to Cardiff watching Hampshire in 2014. Scroll further down on this homepage for this article.

New for this month : February 2025 

We have posted two new articles this month below which both appeared in the latest Cricket Society's Journal. The first by Dave Allen - entitled Documenting Change: Hampshire's Cricket History - is about his 30 years involvement with HCH. The second article, written by John Winter, is about collecting scorecards and the joy of visiting many out grounds as a Hampshire supporter.

Number 13 in our series of 75 for My Favourite Hampshire Game has been written this month by HCH Chair Richard Griffiths. The special game for him at Southport in 1973 is featured below. The series My Favourite Hampshire Game can be found under the MEMORIES Tab above on this site. 

Look out in March 2025 for Numbers 14 and15 in our series - My Favourite Hampshire Game - which feature another famous Hampshire Lord's Final victories hero.  

Our latest Hampshire Cricket Heritage Booklet (and Number 8 in the series) has been written by Stephen Saunders. It is entitled Hampshire's Naval Cricketers and is available for £5 in the Club Shop at The Utilita Bowl, or by contacting us here at HCH, using the email address hantscccheritage@gmail.com 

Numbers 11 and 12 in our series of 75 for My Favourite Hampshire Game have been written this month by Hampshire supporters Charles Dusting and Garry Lane. The games in 1969 and 1977 are featured in the series My Favourite Hampshire Game, which can be found under the MEMORIES Tab above on this site. 

Former HCH Chairman, Terry Crump, has also written the third of his monthly articles about watching Hampshire play away down through the years. In order to read more, click on the HISTORY Tab above for the Terry Crump section of the website. 

Look out in February 2025 for a very special partnership back in the Championship winning season of 1973, at an outground still used on the circuit today, as Number 13 of our series - My Favourite Hampshire Game. 

Numbers 10 and 11 in our series of 75 for My Favourite Hampshire Game have been written this month by Hampshire supporter Richard Drennan. The game at Portsmouth is featured under the MEMORIES Tab above on this site. Alternatively, you can also use the link below in dark blue to take you to that page of this site.

Former HCH Chairman, Terry Crump, has also written the second of his monthly articles about watching Hampshire play away down through the years. In order to read more, click on the HISTORY Tab above for the Terry Crump section of the website.

Number 9 in our series of 75 for My Favourite Hampshire Game has been written by former HCH Chairman, Terry Crump. 

Number 8 in our series of 75 for My Favourite Hampshire Game has been written by Somerset Commentator, Anthony Gibson.

The Launch of the new monthly Homepage Photo Quiz

Number 7 in our series of 75 for My Favourite Hampshire Game has been written by AFC Bournemouth Historian and lifelong Hampshire supporter, Neil Vacher.

Number 6 in our series of 75 for My Favourite Hampshire Game has been written by HCH's very own Glen Williams.

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

New for the week beginning Monday 28th October 2024 

For Numbers Four and Five in the new series - on this site - entitled My Favourite Game, it is a great privilege that we have our second former player, John Rice, giving us his unique insight into what it meant to him to play in that great Hampshire side of the 1970's. When John asked if he could feature two games, who was I say to say 'no' to someone who was a boyhood hero! John chose his debut in April 1971, when his baptism of fire involved bowling at Sobers in full flow, but then poignantly added his last game at the same venue - Dean Park, Bournemouth. Both games were in the John Player League, which was a competition in which he truly excelled.  He played in that last game in September 1982, knowing it would be his final game for a club he had played for with distinction for eleven seasons. In the whole history of  the John Player League 40 Over Sunday afternoon competition, which ran every year from 1969 to 1986, only one fielder (apart from from the wicket keeper) ever took five catches in a match. That man was John Rice and that game against Warwickshire was in the special summer of 1975, when Hampshire won their first ever John Player League Title. He was part of a quintet of all-rounders, with Peter Sainsbury, Trevor Jesty, Mike Taylor and Nigel Cowley, who gave any Hampshire team in the 1970's incredible balance, experience, know-how, skill and amazing ability to compete and win against all opponents on all pitches. Click below for John's first and last appearances for Hampshire.

John Winter HCH Website Editor

Last Updated: October 28th 2024

New for October 2024 

Read about the last week of the season for Hampshire in the Weekly Journal on this site.

Hampshire beat Somerset in the last game of the season to finish runners-up in Division 1 for the first time since 2005. (Week Twenty-Eight in 2024) Apart from the Championship winning years of 1961 and 1973, it matches the highest place finish of 1958, 1974 and 1985. 

The biggest news of the week post-season is the fact announced in the press that Hampshire have signed a deal with Delhi capitals co-owners the GMR group to finalise a takeover of our club. What that means in terms of both change and stability, only time will tell.

New for this autumn to celebrate retiring Hampshire Historian Dave Allen turning 75 this month, while re-doubling his efforts to support HCH as much as ever, we are launching a new monthly item to celebrate our favourite Hampshire matches of the recent and not so recent past. It is not an easy exercise with so many to choose from. The page entitled My Favourite Game is under the Memories Tab on this site. 

Dave kicks off with his favourite ever Hampshire game below. Every month from now on, it will be followed up by other former players, current players and supporters making their selection. Other articles written by Dave this summer for this HCH site can be found under the History tab at the top of the Home Page. 

The second very exciting new feature for October is the launch of a new monthly column for the next six months, written by our first HCH Chairman Terry Crump. Terry played a huge part in re-establishing Hampshire Cricket Heritage five years ago, along with Dave Allen, Richard Griffiths and David Ackland. He was also very proud to be Chairman of Hampshire Cricket Members' Committee, and it is primarily in that role that he will recall visits to away matches for his column entitled, Have Badge will Travel - A Dying Breed. Click on the History Tab on this site to read Terry's recollections of watching Notts v Hampshire in 2010 from the splendour of the pavilion at Trent Bridge. 

Hampshire v Northants

August 18th, 20th and 21st 1973

County Championship

Northlands Road, Southampton

Written by Dave Allen  

There have been so many games over so many years (65 to be precise) and yet when John asked me to choose and write about a game I didn’t hesitate. The context was I suppose just about perfect in that it was my 15th season of watching Hampshire so I had a pretty good idea what English cricket was all about, I was 23 so still young enough to have the enthusiasms of the fan and while I had seen the Hampshire Champions of 1961 I had then been a little too young to comprehend the magnitude of that achievement – and since then despite some fine players and good games there had been no hint of repetition.

Neither was there any great expectation as the 1973 season began. We had a pretty good (!) opening pair and some useful batsmen to come although Greenidge was only in his third full season while Jesty excelled more in limited overs matches back then. Our seam attack had been recruited in some haste to cover the recent departures of three Test players (Shackleton, White & Cottam) and there was very little in reserve. But we had a very fine, captain – perhaps my favourite of them all – and we had ‘Sains’ who knew how to win Championships. If you never saw him, I’m convinced that in every respect he has reincarnated on the cricket field at least in the form of Liam Dawson of recent years.

During the course of the 1973 season we started winning games and if not that we drew them (all three-day games of course) so by early August we were top of the table followed by Northants, with Surrey coming up on the rails. I can recall each day being a mixture of anticipation and anxiety, exhilaration and (brief) dismay; whatever was happening in the rest of my life Hampshire’s cricketers figured more prominently every day. In mid-August Hampshire had a quiet week while Northants and Surrey both won their games in hand, leaving Hampshire 14 points ahead of the midland county who were due at Northlands Road on Saturday 18 August. A win for Hampshire would make them firm favourites for the title but a reverse would throw everything wide open.

I arrived early on the Saturday, sitting in the overflowing pavilion area with my regular pals, Mike & Jenny, John, Ken, perhaps others. It was a heavy overcast day, not at all picturesque and the crowd was huge, anxious yet anticipating and hoping. Southampton was often a run-scoring ground so that morning the visiting captain Jim Watts called correctly and chose to bat. What happened next surely astonished everyone. Northants started carefully and reached 11 before Roy Virgin drove a ball back towards lanky Tom Mottram, never the most agile of fielders, who nonetheless swooped to his right to hold a caught-&-bowled inches from the ground (see picture above). Northants had some very good players but of their top six only Milburn and Watts reached 13 and they were soon 26-4, then 45-7 and 56-8. After lunch, a brief flurry from Sharp (28) and Bedi (32*) took them beyond three figures but 108 all out was nowhere near good enough with Taylor 4-30 and the other three seamers sharing the wickets.

The atmosphere lightened and the day brightened somewhat after that as Richards and Greenidge (45 each) plus Turner took Hampshire to a lead for the loss of just one wicket but there was a late twist; both openers had gone in identical fashion, stumped Sharp bowled Bedi, then Bob Cottam ‘back home’ knocked over Turner and Gilliat, caught Sainsbury off Bedi and Hampshire struggled to 152-8 at the close. Saturday night and an irrelevant Sunday were suddenly less relaxed, less fun then they might have been.

So we returned on Monday with the game well advanced. We added just 15 on a clearer Monday morning and Northants, beginning again 59 runs behind, started well until Hampshire’s left-arm spinner David O’Sullivan worked his magic as Bedi had done. Wickets fell at 34; 40; 71 and 82 and while Geoff Cook (30*) resisted, Greenidge held four catches and O’Sullivan and Mottram had four wickets apiece so that 148 all out left Hampshire a target of just 90.

Would it be straightforward? Cottam got Greenidge almost immediately and then caught Turner off Bedi (16-2) and when the Indian master bowled Jesty it was 49-3 with Gilliat nursing an injury. But Richards (37*) was offering an international standard masterclass against Bedi (14-4-36-2) and with Sainsbury alongside him they won the game around tea-time.

There was still work to do of course but as much as Friday 1 September 1961 which I followed but did not see, this is the game lodged in my memory so vividly even 50+ years later. I am glad then I could not know I would probably never see the like again but at least I did see Hampshire the County Champions.

October 2nd 2024

75 Not Out

New on the HCH Website this Autumn

Starting this October will be a new monthly feature entitled "My Favourite Hampshire Game". Each will be original writing from either a current or former player or an ardent Hampshire supporter. It can be about any single first-class or one-day game involving Hampshire, but must be one where the writer was there on the ground for it. Over the next few years, it is hoped that there will be a grand total of 75 different games reviewed and recalled on this site under this heading. The section has deliberately been entitled 75 Not Out for a reason. As well as the final total of 75, it is a series also designed to honour a truly special servant of Hampshire cricket history. 

Our very own Dave Allen has devoted a lifetime to promoting the history and heritage of all things Hampshire cricket, and he turns 75 this October. Anyone who enjoys his commentaries, following his informative blog or reading his numerous publications about our club will agree that it is very fitting that he has the honour to make his selection first and then share it with us. Just part of his unique legacy, of course, are all the displays and Honours Boards which adorn the Atrium. Look out for the launch, therefore, of this new item on the website to coincide with the end of the current season. Any HCH supporter who wishes to write their own piece and have it included will also soon be able to find out more on how to do so.  Watch this space!

New for September 2024 

Hampshire's Liam Dawson just seems to get better and better. For the second successive season, he has made a century and taken ten wickets in the same game.  We report from that latest Championship game at Old Trafford where Hampshire recorded only their 20th ever win in 155 attempts in red ball cricket. There were about 20 other Hampshire fans with us to see Hampshire win by an innings and 37 runs. Our latest HCH publication about the 2014 Promotion Winning Season - written by Dave Allen - is now on sale for £5 in the Club Shop. 

Week Twenty-Four: Tuesday 3rd September 2024

The 2025 Wisden Cricketer of the Year for next year's almanac just has to be Joe Root. There is almost still six months to go before that final selection is made, but at the moment there is only one stand out contender in world cricket. This week he scored two centuries in a Test match for the first time in the win at Lord’s in the Second Test over Sri Lanka. In addition, he went past Sir Alistair Cook’s record of 34 centuries for England in Test cricket. Unlike for England's current stand-in captain, Ollie Pope, every ball Root faces in the middle - right from ball one - represents an opportunity rather than a threat. Everything he does at the crease — before, during and after the delivery — is an expression of calmness, control and dominance. In his latest knock, during which he surpassed his former colleague's number of Test centuries landmark, he never looked back from the second ball he faced in England’s second innings: he was off and running with a neat nudge into the leg side for two. A mere 109 balls later, he had his record-breaking 34th Test hundred for England, five balls quicker than his previous fastest century. Incredibly for a man who is already England’s greatest batter, he appears to be getting even better.

T20 may be credited with speeding up the Test game and spawning a new genre of shots, but Root has created an original run-making repertoire all of his own. There are more than a few of his strokes that you will not find in any batting manual. It started with that leg-side dink for two to get his innings going before the off glide was soon in operation, steering the ball safely just out of reach of the slip fielders. Typically, he nudged or nurdled the left-arm spin of Prabath Jayasuriya for umpteen singles or twos on the leg side. In addition, there was the paddle sweep, deftly placing the ball just out of the wicketkeeper’s reach, or coaxing it past extra cover’s left hand, and numerous swivel-pulls, played with his feet pivoting as though on wheels, his wrists rotating in sequence to keep the shot down. Instead of brute force or excessive back-lift, he favours crafty, deft deflections on both sides of the wicket, including one cut so late it was almost out of the keeper's gloves. Root's batting is all about angles and placement, so skilled and honed, like a man with a Maths degree specialising in geometry. 

Just watching Root between deliveries is a study in perfection of a routine designed to switch off before switching back on again. With Joe it is always a question of going into standby mode, rather than fully off, as he wanders away from the crease, abstractly turning the blade in his hands, prodding gently at the pitch, smoothing out any imperfections, glancing round the field, spying inviting gaps, then placing his feet precisely either side of the crease, before finally making three little taps of his bat on the ground to ensure he’s ready for the next ball. Crucially, he holds the bat lightly - enabling the soft hands and the delicate manipulations - and is very light on his feet. There was, after all, so much time at Lord's this week for Sri Lankan fielders, as well as spectators, to watch his calculated, practised and now very much hard-wired movements between balls. He faced 206 balls for his 143 in the first innings and 121 balls in the second innings in making 103. Just another record in the process was going past Graham Gooch, as the Test player making the highest number of runs at Headquarters. Next week at the Oval in the last Test of the summer, he could set yet more records: with 12,377 runs currently (at an average of 50.93), he needs 24 runs to go past Sangakkarra and then 96 to overhaul Sir AC to enter the elite list of top five Test run scorers of all time. 

There are two other certainties to be chosen as cricketers of the year from the 2024 season in next year’s Wisden almanac: they both play for Surrey. Jamie Smith is a shoo-in for his performances both behind the stumps and with the bat, having been named the replacement for Jonny Bairstow and Ben Foakes in this England Test team. He will no doubt be joined in the list of 5 Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 2025 by somebody who had an even bigger task when it came to filling somebody else’s boots. With Jimmy Anderson‘s retirement, there has been a seamless passing on of the baton to Gus Atkinson. After just five Tests he has already emulated Stuart Broad's finest performance with the bat by making a century at Lords. Having taken 12 wickets against West Indies on debut, and a maiden first-class hundred in the first innings of this game, Atkinson polished off Sri Lanka’s second innings, taking five wickets in 16 searching overs. In doing so, he became only the third man after Ian Botham and Vinoo Mankad to notch a century and five-wicket double in a Test at Lord’s. This is undoubtedly England’s, and Atkinson’s, summer. The margin of victory was another huge one — 190 runs and a full day and part of a session to spare — despite moments of competitiveness from Sri Lanka who, just as at Old Trafford, could not sustain the quality of their cricket for long enough. Atkinson, incredibly, has now taken 33 wickets in five matches, the most in a debut home summer for an England bowler, the previous best being Fred Trueman, who took 29 wickets in his debut season of 1952. 

In the County game, it is hard to argue against the claim that this is Liam Dawson's summer - just like last year. For the second successive season, he has scored a hundred and taken ten wickets in a match. This year's feat was all the more remarkable because it came away from home against Lancashire, against whom Hampshire have a truly awful record. The circumstances of his hundred in the game were also memorable for all who saw it. At the end of Day One at Old Trafford, Hampshire lost cheap wickets and were 317-9 when last man Mohammed Abbas joined Liam Dawson on 34. They ended the day on 330-9, with Liam still four short of a half-century. The last two balls of the day had been struck by Dawson for 4 and 6, leaving Abbas on strike at 11 o'clock the next morning. It was not until the last ball of the 18th over at 12.18 on Day Two that Abbas was finally dismissed, though, for a very handy 1 off 32 balls. He had added 72 for the last wicket with Dawson who was left on 104*. The whole session saw 9 fielders, in the main, on the boundary for the first four balls of each over whenever Dawson faced, as he farmed the strike so cleverly. Even more remarkable than the five sixes Dawson hit off spin and seam, was the two occasions when he turned down an easy single on 99. So focused on advancing the score for the team, he happily sacrificed personal milestones. Lancashire supporters, despondent with their team's shortcomings, were generous in their applause when Dawson eventually went to three figures. Their mood was not improved as they sat through Lancashire's two efforts with the bat. First time round they were bundled out for exactly 200 in 77.3 overs. with Dawson returning figures of 28.3-8-47-5. Hampshire's fielding was outstanding.

Worse was to follow for the home side, having been invited to follow on after losing their last two wickets in just nine balls on Day Three. Second time round they crawled to 88-6 off 54.4 overs when Luke Wells was finally bowled by Dawson for 51. Eventually victory was wrapped up by an innings and 37 runs. Dawson finished with 5 for 52 off another 29.3 overs with 11 maidens. Sticking with the team victory ahead of personal milestones for Liam, it was Hampshire's first red ball win against Lancashire at Old Trafford since 1992. It was only their 20th in 155 County Championship games against Lancashire since 1895. It was also only their third victory by an innings against the Red Rose county, with the last coming in the Championship winning year of 1973. Liam's summer now sees him second in the leading wicket takers list for the 2024 County Championship season, just one behind Oliver Hannon-Dalby. He is also in the top ten of the batting averages with 706 runs at 58.83. Lancashire's Liam may be the hottest ticket in town on Ticketmaster currently, but Hampshire supporters and team mates recognise that our Liam's value to the side has never been worth more in his sixteen seasons in the first team. He is consistently playing the best cricket of his career - just like Joe Root

New for August 2024 

Our latest HCH publication about the 2014 Promotion Winning Season - written by Dave Allen - will go on sale for the first time for £5 in the Club Shop at the next Championship home game against Essex. Dave Allen also has a new exhibition on 275 Years of Portsmouth Cricket at Portsmouth Central Library. Hampshire lost their latest two Metro Bank One Day Cup away games against Durham and Worcestershire. Both 50 over matches feature prominently in this week's 2024 Journal - on this site under the Memories of Every Season tab - which you can read by clicking on the dark blue link below. There is also a review of cricket in early August of the Ashes summer of 1968, with Hampshire competing for the County Championship title with Yorkshire and Glamorgan back then. 

Caps

The most recent addition to our Hampshire Cap Collection is a very special one. It is the County Cap awarded to Sam Pothecary in 1927. Glen Williams has been in person to collect it in June 2024 from the Pothecary family, after they contacted HCH with the express wish of donating it to the Archive Collection. Sam's son and daughter have very kindly donated Sam's cap awarded in 1927 for a player who represented his native county in 271 matches across a 20 year career with the club. He made nine centuries, including a career-best 130, amassing 9,477 runs. Bowling slow-left-arm, he also took 52 wickets with a best of 4-47. Aged 40, he managed three Championship matches in the season after the end of the Second World War, before then working as a groundsman, coach and umpire in the professional game right up until 1975. His cap is now very much a prized possession in our collection. 

New for July 2024 

Hampshire won their third Championship game of the season against Kent, with a majestic 211 from James Vince. His timing, as always, was perfect through the off-side in particular. The win features prominently in this week's 2024 Journal - on this site under the Memories of Every Season tab - which you can read by clicking on the link below. The skipper's timing was also perfect, given a large number of former players were watching from the Hampshire Suite at the Utilita Bowl on Sunday 30th June.  We have a new HCH publication just out on Portsmouth Cricket Week in 1974 (featured below) which is now on sale for £5 in the Club Shop. 

Sincere thanks for all the support for our very successful HCH Book Sale in the Club Shop at the Utilita Bowl on Days One, Two and Three of the recent Hampshire 

v Durham game in May. We raised over a thousand pounds - through the sales of books, handbooks, and pictures - which will all be used to purchase historical items of interest to expand our rich collection of Hampshire Cricketana. We also had another eight people join us this week, making valued donations, as HCH Supporters. 

Some of our most recent acquisitions at HCH include these cricket balls from 1965 - when Yorkshire were bowled out for just 23 at Middlesbrough  - and from the Hampshire v Leicestershire game at Portsmouth in 1966, which commemorates Butch White taking a record breaking 9 for 44.

If you want to contact us on how to become a valued HCH Supporter, or offer any suggestions and donations for future HCH Book Sales, please just write to us at hantscccheritage@gmail.com

Hampshire Cricket Heritage

Meet the New Team 

Firstly, there is Dave Allen who really needs no introduction to anyone who has followed Hampshire cricket over the past forty years. He is featured in the History Tab on this site on the sub-page entitled HCCC's Current Historian. The first Heritage Group at the time of the move from Northlands Road at the turn of the century consisted of various individuals who took on specific roles – principally

• Dave Allen (Chairman) – Curator plus publications & fund-raising

• Richard Binns – Rose Bowl displays, (Members’ Committee)

• Neil Jenkinson - Archivist

• Bob Murrell – Statistician

More than twenty years later, Dave continues to be the driving force of HCH to this day. He is  very experienced and skilled, both as a writer and commentator, who has shaped the heritage on display at Hampshire's new home since 2001, in a totally unique and special way. He has the finest scrapbook collection ever imaginable on Hampshire Cricket. He is also hugely proud to follow in the footsteps of so many great former Hampshire historians. Sharing his fount of knowledge in so many different ways is one of his greatest gifts. Dave's Hampshire History Blog which is updated every week throughout the year is a firm favourite with so many Hampshire fans.

https://hampshirecrickethistory.wordpress.com/

The current Chair is Richard Griffiths who travels down from West Yorkshire and has been pivotal in forming and then reviving HCH after COVID-19. Among his many roles, he oversees and facilitates all the new acquisitions to the expanding Archive Room Collection. As an avid collector himself, Richard is passionate about all aspects of county cricket and the intrinsic value of all our memorabilia. 

David Ackland will also be very familiar to many of you. He misses very few matches, watching Hampshire home and away throughout the season. He is both the Secretary and Treasurer of HCH, taking on everything that both roles entail. David has also donated significant amounts of his own book collection to HCH. 

Ray Stubbington is a retired local former club cricketer who has spent countless hours over a number of years digitising scorecards and photographs in the Archive Collection. Ray has been instrumental in the ongoing recent reorganisation of everything in the Archive Room.

Glen Williams is another local boy in the team. He has taken ownership of cataloging all the books and  organising the book sales; he, again has been instrumental in the ongoing recent reorganisation of the Archive Room. Glen has donated very generously a number of valuable Hampshire Handbooks which predate 1939 to his beloved  Archive Room  which he has christened the Batcave.

John Winter, like Glen and Ray, is a relatively new recruit to the team. John also lives in the North of England. He has become increasingly involved with HCH over the past couple of years and has helped to set up this website. He is the editor of the site and the e-Magazine.