Week Eight: Tuesday 14th May 2024

This week's entry begins with the very sudden and traumatic news about the shock death of 20-year-old Worcestershire spinner, Josh Baker. Before the county's game against Kent on Friday at Canterbury, there was a moment of silence followed by a minute's applause. All the Worcestershire players will wear his squad number, 33, under the club's crest on their shirts for the rest of the season. He was clearly a very popular player at the club and his tragic premature death in the middle of a second eleven game, in which he was playing, has met with universal grief in the cricketing fraternity. His beloved county did him proud on the field in the first game since the announcement of his death, with first innings hundreds for Gareth Roderick, Jason Holder and Matthew Waite. As stated previously in earlier entries for this journal, they are surely the county to admire this season  - above any other  - as they respond with great dignity and skill to all the many and varied challenges, both off and on the field. At the end of this current round of matches, they now sit above Kent, Hampshire and Lancashire at the foot the table. 

The runs were flowing on the south coast. Tom Prest scored his second championship century to add to Ali Orr’s hundred on the first day and Ben Brown’s 75th first-class fifty, as Hampshire piled on 503. Prest became Brydon Carse’s first scalp of the season after having gone for 285 runs without taking a wicket so far this year. The veteran Australian Peter Siddle finished with three wickets and the spinner Callum Parkinson bagged an expensive four-wicket haul. Hampshire's two centurions was the highlight at the Utilita Bowl in a dull high-scoring draw. Ali Orr made 126 off 211 balls - for his first of hopefully many tons for his new club - while Tom Prest impressed again; his 102 off 163 balls was also his first on his home ground. Durham's 432 all out in 148.5 overs, in response to Hampshire's 503 in 146.4, included a fine hundred by David Beddingham (144). Liam Dawson bowled 66 overs taking 5-184. At Canterbury, in the Worcestershire first innings, former Lancashire leg-spinner, Matt Parkinson, went for 201 off his 44 overs, while his twin, Callum, returned figures of 43-2-176-3 in the Hampshire game for Durham. Lancashire, meanwhile, stay bottom after their own former Test batsman Haseeb Hameed carried his bat for Notts at Trent Bridge, with 247* off 459 balls in Nottinghamshire's first innings 503 all out. Notts won easily by 9 wickets and he may yet come again for England. Surrey were also conclusive winners over Warwickshire by 9 wickets, with Jamie Smith furthering his England claims with another eye-catching 155 off 177 balls. 

The other big news for England this week is about the impending international retirement of another of Lancashire's sporting greats. Hyperbole are common place in sport's journalism, but superlatives are the only thing that are appropriate when references are made to James Anderson and his England career. At Old Trafford for the West Indies game in mid-August, when cricket will have to start moving into the slow lane to let the juggernaut of the new football season through, it will feel so strange to watch a Test Match where an England team finally (and terminally) has no Jimmy Anderson in it. The End named after him at the football ground end will have to serve as a permanent reminder of 700 Test wickets and a place on the top table amongst the greatest bowlers ever to aim at three stumps 22 yars away. As with Broad’s spectacular finale last summer, it brings home a feeling of ageing with both of them now moving onto pastures new. Both have been such a fundamental part of England’s success and continuity for so many years. 

Sir Alastair Cook wrote in the Sunday Times,  “I was unbelievably lucky as captain in that I knew that if I threw the ball to Jimmy or Stuart I would get consistency. They might not bowl their best spell, but they would be there or thereabouts and even if they didn’t get it quite right in the first spell they would in their second or third. There are so few great bowlers who have been both great wicket-taking bowlers and holding bowlers. That’s what Jimmy has given England and his captains.” As the attention quickly turns to who might succeed him longer term in the England red ball team, we are left with reflections about a unique professional athlete whose longevity was sans pareil in the modern era. Jonathan Agnew once put it, Anderson is “an anomaly amongst pacemen, a strange, brilliant glitch in the biomechanics machine [who] has kept going when the purring engines of even the greatest of his peers have long since puttered out”.

Setting the Scene in 2024 and 1968

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose!

My own preparations for the new cricket season in 2024 are slightly different this year. Owing to my far greater involvement with Hampshire Cricket Heritage - which has had a very successful relaunch this winter - I am certain that I am going to watch my beloved Hampshire with an even greater attachment to placing events on the field, at times, in the context of not just the more recent, but hopefully more distant past. Starting away at Durham is easy and a gentle introduction in terms of time - rather than distance travelled. Our rivalry with the most northern county is by far the shortest in terms of previous fixtures in red ball cricket. The first game of the 2024 season will be our 34th against Durham in the County Championship. I was fortunate enough to attend Hampshire’s first ever Championship match at home to Durham in 1992 and that game is featured on this website under the Scorecards Collection tab. 

Cricket has always been a game where statistics and records have been regularly alluded to during live television or radio coverage. Making comparisons from different eras - whilst trying to understand and take into account relevant context - milestones and breaking records are all part of the game’s DNA for players and spectators alike. English cricket back in 1968 was at a very low ebb and the only way was up for attendances watching cricket live across the country. Norman Preston began his editorial in that year's Wisden, “County Cricket has taken its biggest step forward in recent years by opening the door to Overseas players through the process of immediate registration. This bold move could be the salvation of the three-day County championship and I am only surprised that the plunge was not taken sooner.” Somehow it is extremely comforting and reassuring that existential crises have continually faced the counties since the start of the County Championship in 1890, and yet it continues to defy all the odds and survive; in doing so, it provides great entertainment for the enlightened and dedicated few, whilst remaining the bedrock for producing truly world class players like Anderson, Root, Stokes et al.

The first obvious comparison between the cricket seasons in 2024 and 1968 are the start dates for Hampshire’ first championship fixture. Back in 1968, Hampshire sat at Hove in the pavilion all day without a ball bowled. It was the first of May! This season, the first round of County Championship matches start on April 5th and by the 1st May they are scheduled to have played 16 days of red ball cricket. That will be approaching a third of the season completed and (even allowing for climate change!) that is already a very stark contrast with times gone by. The result of the game against champions Surrey at the Oval at the end of April will tell us a lot about whether Hampshire can really challenge again for the title in 2024. Back in May 1968, Yorkshire started the new campaign as champions and Hampshire were looking to improve on 11th place in the 17 team table (without Durham of course). 

Without any cricket to report for those weeks in April 1968 for John Arlott, I intend to use the time in my weekly update - alongside the journal of Hampshire's 2024 campaign - to include a few more details which might help to paint the picture of what county cricket was like back then when the big overseas stars first burst on the scene. This will involve trying to explain the point system change that year for the County Championship! The last word should go to John Arlott of course on that with his journal entry at the start of 1968, “We have, too, a new points-scoring system for the championship - by my reckoning the twenty-ninth system since the competition began, but that could be a considerable under-estimate.”

Preview of the 2024 Season Part 1

A Long and Winding Road

Week One:  Beginning March 25th 2024

Today Hampshire are in action in their second pre-season friendly against newly promoted Worcestershire at the newly named Utilita Bowl. It will not be a late finish, seeing as the clocks only go forward next weekend.  Checking the scores on the Play-Cricket site, Worcestershire are 23-2 in the 10th over and ex-Cheshire and Lancashire batsmen Rob Jones is just out for 2 caught by Liam Dawson off Ian Holland, having faced 32 balls*. It is the time of year when and where hope springs eternal, both within and beyond the boundary rope. Back in the glorious summer of 1959, Hampshire’s very own John Arlott wrote at the start of that season: ”Every April cricketers are filled anew with that hope that springs – if not eternally at least annually – even in the non bowler who goes in at number eleven for his village – that this season is going to see him reach a new crest of success”. This year, for all longstanding and loyal Hampshire fans, there will once again be a great sense of anticipation and expectation that this particular summer could be truly special. Never quite forgetting the disappointment of that final day of the 2021 season when Hampshire lost by one wicket to Lancashire at Aigburth, this top flight red ball campaign - with a slightly more balanced schedule in June and July - could one again offer the chance finally of the glory that matters most in domestic cricket. It would match the achievement of being at the summit, when it matters most, by the two championship winning teams of 1961 and 1973. Arguably, the Hampshire XI of exactly 50 years ago in 1974, who missed out so narrowly on retaining the title, was the strongest in the club’s history since we first competed in the 1895 championship. Even that team, though, did not get quite as close on the last day of the season to achieving the Holy Grail, as the class of 2021 ultimately did. 

Thrillingly - or maybe even chillingly for a few of us there that late September day in Liverpool (and given how cold it was at the end) the world suddenly stood still: history records that there were actually four balls when the 2021 side were just one wicket away from being crowned English County Champions. A game meandering to a tame, if not unsurprising, last day defeat, suddenly exploded in those last 20 overs into top table sporting drama. The drama and tension, after the hiatus of Covid and a first long rewarding summer again with spectators present, reached fever pitch for all those in the ground or watching on the live stream. Less than a mile or so from the homes of John and Paul in neighbouring Allerton, it definitely felt the end of a long and winding road. With my Winchester friends, Bill and Neil, sitting there with me amongst the Lancashire members on the Liverpool boundary edge, Mason Crane entered stage left at the end of the last scene of the last act. Famously, he took five wickets in no time, as well as enacting a brilliant direct hit run out, to bring Hampshire to the brink of glory. A tricky, tortuous final ascent had become a golden sprint in the autumn sunshine. This team suddenly came within one ball of writing its name indelibly into Hampshire folklore. When the whole red ball county season came down in the end in 2021 to the first two balls of the four, nearly fifty years of being an avid Hampshire fan sent me momentarily into a complete spin. Talking of spin, two leg spinners are the respective batsman and bowler on stage at the centre of this epic theatre. As Mason Crane bowled those two deliveries to Lancashire last man Matt Parkinson the championship from nowhere was suddenly there to win again. Parkinson survived somehow, more by luck than judgement. Two balls into the next over, when the resolute Vilas swept the brilliant Dawson for four, those dreams were shattered. In amongst all those feelings of "what if", I soon felt for poor Neil, who had to sit in the car with Bill all the way back to Hampshire! The lyrics of 'Many times I've been alone, And many times I've cried, Anyway you'll never know, the many ways I've tried." could not be more appropriate for Bill when it comes to which finals and dramatic games he attends in person and which ones he misses out on.

Three years on after a winter spent by England blooding three incredibly inexperienced spinners, neither Crane nor Parkinson were in the frame to play in India. Even more poignantly - as the England Captain and Coach pleaded, after a heavy series defeat, for more opportunities in domestic cricket for English spinners to profit on turning wickets - neither will be playing for their parent counties during the 2024 season. It is very much to be hoped both Crane and Parkinson are able to use their respective moves to rediscover their rhythm and form to match their standing of less than three years ago. Despite limited opportunities in County Cricket back then, Test Cricket was still a distinct possibility for both of them. Three years has also been a long time now to process that sense of deflation from that truly memorable last hour at Aigburth and to try and park those dreams of what might have been. One of the greatest - and certainly most celebrated - Lancashire fans Neville Cardus once wrote, “It is because cricket does not always hurry along, a constant hurly burly, every player propelled here and there by the pace of the continuous action, that there is time for character to reveal itself. We remember not the scores and results after years; it is the men who remain in our minds, in our imagination.” This match was one of those games where that was not entirely true. Having Arlott in the commentary for Hampshire and Cardus in the press box for Lancashire, would have been the only thing to make that day more captivating and memorable. 

The important footnote to that day’s events of course is that even though Lancashire celebrated that famous dramatic win, 24 hours later they were to taste totally contrasting emotions. Unlike Hampshire if they had won, Lancashire could still be overhauled in the table by Warwickshire, who still had much work to do to beat Somerset on the very last day of the whole season at Edgbaston. Having been rescued in the first innings by former Hampshire spinner Danny Briggs’ 53* - batting at number nine, the West Midlands county won easily in the end by 118 runs to take the title and shatter all Lancashire’s supporters dreams. Danny was a hugely popular player at Hampshire and part of the James Vince and Liam Dawson golden generation who broke through in or just before 2009. Nobody on the South Coast - and more specifically the Isle of Wight - could feel anything other than pride that this former Hampshire Academy graduate and England International was a County Championship Winner. Meanwhile Lancashire and Warwickshire will be Hampshire’s first two opponents at the newly named Utilita Bowl in the First Division of the County championship in April 2024. Over the past four seasons, Hampshire have finished third, fourth, third and third, with Surrey very much the team to beat in 2022 and 2023. Last season, Hampshire matched Surrey's eight championship victories, but heavy losses against Surrey and Essex meant we were never in contention to win it in September.  For us to finish top of the pile in 2024, with away fixtures at Div 2 Champions Durham and last Year's Division 1 Champions Surrey also in April, Hampshire's extremely talented team will need to be very competitive and consistent from Day One of the season.  Part 2 of this season's preview next week will focus on trying to assess Hampshire's chances, alongside those of their potential rivals in Division One, for the 2024 title. 

*Just as a footnote and having finished this piece, I have checked the Hampshire score again and Worcestershire's innings has closed after 45 overs on 116-11. The last man out is the aforementioned and doubly unfortunate Rob Jones - out this time batting second time round in the same innings for 1. His single came off 43 balls before he was given out lbw to James Fuller. Out twice in the same day for 3 off 75 balls, he could of course argue that time in the middle is all that matters in March!

Preview of the 2024 Season Part 2

Chance to Shine for County Cricket again in 2024

Week Two:  Beginning April 2nd 2024

Last summer's Ashes Series was a brilliant advert for the longer form of the game and every young player in the county game surely has a chance of catching the current England's selectors eyes, if they show the potential to make it at the highest level. Consistent performances over a long period are not necessarily the key currency needed currently; rather, it is showing the range of attacking shots, coupled with a sound method and strong mind as a batsman, or wicket taking ability through genuine pace as a quick bowler, that Key, McCullum and Stokes will be looking for most this summer. The requirement to find a fit and threatening genuine pace attack to go down under to compete in 25/26 must be their number one priority, as far as the next Ashes series is concerned. With reference to the brand of positive and attacking cricket England have been playing for two years now, Vic Marks writes on page 34 of the April 2024 Cricketer Magazine, "The manner in which the national team has been playing should have a significant impact on the championship. Whatever the outcome in India there was still something uplifting about the efforts of Ben Stokes' side. County Cricketers will have made a note. The emphasis on attacking batsmanship will not be deserted by this England set-up so there is not much future in blocking."

With three additional points available for the draw this season in the County Championship, does that fly slightly in the face of what Vic Marks is envisaging? Accepting his point on the individual level about selection for the national side to bat in the top seven, the point surely will be for a County team in 2024 that the draw has to be a vital important option, if victory is out of reach. England currently want to win at all costs, with no thoughts of drawing any five day game. Both James Vince and Adi Birrell talked about  - at the Fans Forum on Wednesday night broadcast on Radio Solent from the Utilita Bowl (available on BBC Sounds) - the need for all Division one sides to avoid costly losses; Hampshire's stated aim for the new season, from both captain and coach, was definitely to take more of the red ball games deeper into the fourth day. Patience and fitness were cited as being key. Hampshire have clearly identified the need for greater fitness from all the players as one of the key components in the renewed quest to try and win the elusive County Championship. 

We have come so close in recent recent seasons, matching Surrey's tally of eight wins last season for example, but losing the key battles - at the Oval in particular - has been an area to address for those in charge. James and Adi also highlighted the fact that the Kookaburra ball being used in more four day games this season had come into their pre-season planning and thinking. Neither thought life would be easier for any opening batsmen on the circuit with the Kookaburra ball. However, the less pronounced seam meant that after the first twenty overs of an innings wickets were likely to be even harder to get. All the top teams bat far deeper in the 1st Division and this has been a great strength for Hampshire with James Fuller, Keith Barker and Kyle Abbott all capable of taking quick runs off flagging attacks late on a hot day. Assessing Hampshire's chances of ultimate success in the Title race will come at the end of this piece, after looking at all the other nine teams' squads in the order that we play them during the season in the County Championship.

First up is Durham and we play them both away and at home before the middle of May. They are also the opponent I am looking forward most to seeing live in Hampshire Championship matches this season. They took the Second Division by storm last season, playing an attacking form of cricket which mirrored most that of the England side. Can they be successful trying to replicate that in the top flight this campaign? Their first innings run rate was above four on 11 occasions last summer, when they accumulated an incredible 54 batting points. Alex Lees, Graham Clark, David Bedingham and Ollie Robinson all scored quickly and heavily, while Ben McKinney looks a top prospect. Brydon Carse and Matthew Potts have not looked out of place in the international arena, while the addition of Scot Boland to partner Ben Raine looks a very astute signing. They promise to be tough opponents and a good watch in 2024.

We play Lancashire in the first home game at the newly named Utilita Bowl in April, but have to wait until the end of August for the return fixture in Manchester. As a result, we are likely to face Australia's Nathan Lyon in April and England's Tom Hartley in August when Lancashire opt for any spin.  Winning both those two games would be a major step forward towards winning the title for Hampshire. In 153 Championship games since 1895, we have won a mere 19. It is now sixteen four day games since our last victory against Lancashire in the Championship in 2009. Last April, rain ruled out the last day in the home game, with Hampshire well placed and Lancashire facing a tough last day chase. In 2023 Lancashire only lost one game (to Essex) in the whole season and with more points now available for the draw should be even more in the Title race this summer. Keaton Jennings, Luke Wells, Phil Salt and Josh Bohannon are a very impressive English top four; they have very promising emerging talent in George Balderson, George Bell, Matty Hurst and George Lavelle; their seam attack with Tom Bailey, Saqib Mahmood, Will Williams, Luke Wood and a certain James Anderson promise heaps of wickets, while the spin department has international class in abundance. 

Warwickshire are our next opponents at home in April and they will be captained by somebody familiar to all Southern Brave fans, Alex Davies. Having first seen him in a Lancashire Under 11 game, I always felt he would have been a good signing for Hampshire, as an attacking top order batsman and chirpy gloveman, once things began to go sour for him at Old Trafford. The attack at Alex's disposal, picked out of Chris Rushworth, Oliver Hannon-Dalby, Hassan Ali, Chris Woakes, Richard Gleeson, Craig Miles, Liam Norwell, George Garton, Ed Barnard, Moeen Ali and Danny Briggs, looks incredibly strong in terms of both quality and depth. Like a number of other top tier sides, getting runs on the board may be the biggest challenge. Sam Hain remains, though, a quality act with the bat in all formats.

The end of this first month sees a trip to defending Champions and title favourites to land a third championship triumph in a row, Surrey. The signing of Dan Lawrence strengthens that claim because, if they have had a weaker area over the past two seasons when they have won the CC, it has been the loss of early wickets that have made winning games harder. Their overseas signings and resilient lower order have all too often saved the day in the past two summers, before their excellent bowling attack has got to work with the ball. Ollie Pope and Ben Foakes will be available form the start of the season. Jamie Smith looks an England player in waiting and Surrey's depth in the seam department even eclipses Lancashire and Warwickshire. They certainly remain the team to beat in Alec Stewart's final season in charge this summer. We again play Surrey away and at home before any white white ball cricket starts this summer. The lop sided nature of the fixture list, where we will have played two teams at home and away in the first eight games, but then don't play two of the remaining teams until late September (and then just once each anyway as the last two games of the season), is just crazy and amateurish on a number of levels. 

Our only other opponents in the first eight games are Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge. They have raided Worcestershire for much of their attack with the acquisition of Dillon Pennington and Josh Tongue to back up Dane Patterson, Olly Stone, Brett Hutton, Luke Fletcher and Liam Patterson-White. Joe Clarke still has time to play for England and Jack Haynes looks another very canny additional signing from poor Worcestershire. After the first set of June T20 fixtures, the next new red ball opponents are Kent at home. Like Nottinghamshire, I just don't see them challenging in the top half this season. Daniel Bell-Drummond is captain in all three formats, Zak Crawley will light up any game he now plays, while the wicket keeping duties may well fall to Harry Finch. A number of significant recent departures, including the superb keeper/batsmen Ollie Robinson (left for Durham) and Jordan Cox (left for Essex), leaves their squad looking thin. Ben Compton, Joe Denly and the captain will surely need very good seasons with the bat for them to survive in the top flight for another season. Their attack looks much less threatening than all the other Division One sides - save for Worcestershire's after their crucial personnel losses. 

Hampshire play Essex for the only time in red ball cricket at home in late August. Dean Elgar has been brought in to replace Sir Alastair Cook.  The home grown attack of Sam Cook, Jamie Porter, Aaron Beard, Paul Walter and Shane Snater, to add to the overseas brilliance of Simon Harmer, should ensure that they are always capable of taking twenty wickets.  September's opponents, Worcestershire look both the weakest squad and first choice eleven in the division on paper. It is very much to be hoped that the likes of Jake Libby and Gareth Roderick can build on last season's success in their promotion campaign. Worcestershire remain very much a popular club which faces great challenges on and off the field just to stay afloat. A keen fan and close friend assures me the arrival of Ashley Giles is making a big difference already in helping his favourite club navigate these currently very difficult waters at New Road. Fifty years on from denying Hampshire the County Championship title in 1974, they will do unbelievably well this year to stay out of the bottom two in the final reckoning. Somerset at Taunton is the final game of the season and the first time we play them in the 2024 County Championship! Last season, they were the best T20 Team bar none.  James Rew was their stand out run maker in 2023 in red ball cricket; he will face a challenging second season - like all promising starlets on the circuit -  to match his tally of 1,086 at 57.15. Tom Abell has relinquished the captaincy and could be a heavy run scorer this year as a result. Both may yet have England careers post Root, Foakes and Stokes - when that dreaded time comes!

That just leaves one team left to preview for 2024. Hampshire's pace trio of Kyle Abbott, Mohammed Abbas and Keith Barker - along with Captain James Vince and top all-rounder Liam Dawson - all definitely deserve to be in a Championship winning side. For that to be the case in 2024, it feels as if all hopefully need to stay fit and be available for nearly every CC game. Nick Gubbins, Tom Prest, Fletcha Middleton, Ben Brown and Ali Orr also all need to take run scoring as a collective unit to the next level in Division One cricket. They are all more than capable of doing just that. Others like James Fuller, Ian Holland, Toby Albert, Felix Organ, Joe Weatherley, Brad Wheal, John Turner, Eddie Jack and Dom Kelly will hopefully grab the limelight, if and when opportunities occur during the season. The true arrival of Orr, Middleton and Prest as automatic picks by the end of August feels crucial to a title challenging campaign. If Tom Prest begins to emulate the run scoring of his former England Under 19 teammate James Rew this summer, we are all going to be in for a treat.  

Whatever happens, the spirit of the club and the desire to win the championship by this group of players is beyond any doubt. The coach exudes calmness and class, just like the captain. It is clear from what they have both said publicly recently that the attack wants to bowl even straighter this season, presumably to bring lbw and bowled even more into play with the Kookaburra ball. The slip cordon has been a real strength of the side to watch in recent seasons and hopefully Liam can be in his usual place from game one after last season's injuries.  A preview of this amazing Hampshire squad's chances in the T20 and 50 Over competitions will follow nearer the start of both competitions. In the meantime, let's hope for some wonderful sunny days watching Hampshire at home and away, spent basking in the drama of numerous twists and turns of great County Championship cricket, with the icing on any cake - locking away another first class JMV ton (or five or six) in the memory bank and being able to say yet again "I was there to see him make it all look so classy and effortless" in years to come. April is nothing else, if not the month to start dreaming again as a devoted Hampshire fan, watching this vastly experienced and highly skilled squad, brilliantly led by a captain going into his ninth full season in charge. Luck, the weather, fitness and form, coming out on the right side in tight finishes and breakthrough seasons for young players will all need to play their part, if we are to break that 51 year wait for The County Championship Title. At this time of year, I always cling on to the hope and genuine belief that this current team's chances are far, far better than those rated as 66-1 outsiders in 1973, who were the last Hampshire side to reach the summit. In fact, apart from Surrey, I genuinely give us as good a chance as anyone to finish top of the pile. The performances against key potential rivals in April will, though, quickly tell us a good deal about whether those Championship hopes and dreams are justified. Train ticket to Chester-le-Street on Friday has been booked for weeks and now it is just in the lap of the gods for the weather to play ball in the North East. 

Week Three: Tuesday 9th April 2024

Never could the beginning of a County Championship season have started with such a wonderful blend and juxtaposition of predictability and unpredictability in its first round of matches. The predictability was the lack of play with the weather in the North East, the unpredictability was the number of Northeast runs in the South East. Make your own mind up about which category the following achievements and happenings also fall into: Essex stole a march on all the other Division One teams with a Cook very much in the headlines; a former Bedfordshire batsman last season made a hundred in each innings for Worcestershire; 1151 runs were scored at Lord’s before the tenth wicket of the game fell; Surrey’s four seamers of Roach, Lawes, Clark and Overton managed to claim one Lancashire wicket in their 35 overs - in contrast to the nine taken in 37 by their two part time spinners Steel and Lawrence; a very kind Lord’s steward showed tact and kindness, by letting my three year old grandson in for free to witness history in the making in St John’s Wood. 

Former Kent and Hampshire batsman, Sam Northeast declared in his first game as Glamorgan captain at Lord’s with his side on 620 for 3. The single he clipped into the leg side off Henry Brookes to take him to 334 was acknowledged with a standing ovation, as he had surpassed Graham Gooch’s unforgettable 333 against India in 1990 and become the highest ever individual scorer in a first-class innings at the Home of Cricket. His score (335*) was the highest ever made in April in the history of the County Championship and meant he was already over a third of the way towards a thousand runs by the end of May! The previous highest Championship score against Middlesex at Lord’s had stood since 1926; this was when Jack Hobbs, aged 43, made 316 not out for Surrey.

Up in the North East, the prospects of watching a ball bowled on the opening day of the “summer” at Durham Emirates ICG felt minimal, with the dual threat of train strikes and poor weather looming large before 11 o’clock on Friday April 5th. While the vast majority of the day’s trains in the country were sitting idly in sidings, the 08.32 TransPennine Express from Manchester Victoria ran amazingly to time, pulling in at Chester-le-Street at 11.01. According to my phone, play was, however, underway in only two fixtures in Division One around the country: Worcestershire were put in at Edgbaston and Essex were inserted at Trent Bridge. Inside the ground the covers were off, but there wasn’t any activity from either ground staff mopping up or players eagerly warming up. The writing was soon on the wall despite the blue sky overhead. An announcement came through after the cursory Umpires Inspection that play was not going to take place that day. Sadly, Days Two,Three and Four all followed suit. It was the back end of that wet summer of 1974 all over again - with just a touch less at stake! The blank Durham scorecards on sale for £1 will forever remain blank, given that the teams were only due to be announced at a toss which never happened. 

On the eve of that first day of the season last Friday, I had the pleasure of reading an article entitled “A Memorable Day” by Dave Allen (which has been posted on this site under the History / Dave Allen tabs. In it, Dave celebrates 65 years of watching Hampshire and reflects that he has seen almost exactly half of the total number of years the club has played first class cricket. He acknowledges gratefully, in his conclusion, that the first 65 years from 1895-1958 are ones he has always enjoyed researching, but were, nevertheless, successive eras where Hampshire remained trophyless throughout. In stark contrast, since 1959 - when he spent his first day at the cricket, as a 10 year-old, at the United Services Ground in Portsmouth - the Club has won everything there is to win. Somehow it is just so reassuring to read that others first bitten by the County Championship watching bug in early childhood, just can’t shake it off 65 years later! There was a healthy gathering of dedicated Durham members who stoically accepted the news with resignation on Day One. My heart really went out, though, to the visiting Hampshire fans who had made the long trek north and were staying over for all four days. Having been thanked cordially for coming by the coach Adi Birrell, they discussed plans to visit Beamish Museum and nearby Durham. 

The season’s first hat-trick came on Day Two of the new season at Trent Bridge. Sam Cook turned the game round with Notts handily placed on 259-4 and Joe Clarke in full flow and a hundred to his name. 6 wickets then fell for 34 runs. Sam Cook finished with 4-59; he soon made that a ten for in the match for very few more. His stand out figures of 14-10-14-6, in Notts’s second innings demise for just 80, gave Essex victory by the huge margin of 254 runs in what had been quite a tight game until Day Four. The Essex win, though, might just turn out to be particularly important in their ambitions for the season; there is a possible points deduction awaiting, if the bat that opener Feroze Khushi was ordered to change after an on-field check on Day Two is confirmed to have exceeded the maximum permitted size.

The final word on Hampshire’s false start with Durham is the start made by another ex-player who had previously been released by both clubs. Cameron Steel made 29 in his only County Championship match for Hampshire in 2021. At Durham, Cameron Steel had four years earlier become the youngest double-centurion in Durham's history, when he struck 224 against Leicestershire at Grace Road, aged just 21. In 2021, he moved down to Surrey on a two-year mid-season deal, where he has been operating primarily as a squad player in all three formats. Along with high profile new signing Dan Laurence - surely signed from Essex for his batting - Steel came on to take the first five wicket haul of the season in Division One at Old Trafford. From 150-2, Lancashire totally collapsed to part time spin and were 202 all out. Nathan Lyon and Tom Hartley were soon introduced into the attack when Surrey batted. It felt like we were watching Test cricket in India all over again, with spinners in tandem after less than 10 overs, even though it was still a wet, damp day under leaden skies in April in Manchester. 

The apogee of unpredictability came probably though at Edgbaston. Kashif Ali has a cricketing CV which includes Bedfordshire, Essex 2nd XI, Kent 2nd XI, Northants 2nd XI, Notts 2nd XI, Leicestershire 2nd XI and Worcestershire 2nd XI. Batting at three for Worcestershire against a strong Warwickshire attack, he made 110 first time round off 188 balls; not content with one ton, he made 133 off 128 balls (with 5 sixes) in the second innings. Let’s hope Ali Orr can do likewise at the Utilita Bowl on Friday against Lancashire, if he finally gets to bat against this Kookaburra ball, Only eight Hampshire players have ever made a hundred on debut for the club; unsurprisingly, nobody has made two in their first game. To learn more, read Dave Allen’s article on Hampshire batting debuts under the History / Dave Allen / Batting Debuts tab on this site.

Week Four: Tuesday 16th April 2024

Viewing live cricket from the Shane Warne Stand this week, it was hard not to lionise a current Australia top-class Test bowler, wheeling away for his new county, Lancashire. He did after all bowl the lion’s share of all the first innings overs. He was neither rampant nor caged, but just a menacing and captivating presence all day. Tellingly just after lunch on Day One, he removed both Gubbins (50) and Vince (56) who had earlier come together at 26-2. This was significant in the case of Gubbins because he had scored a century in each innings in the last home fixture against Lancashire just under two years ago. As for Vince, anyone who has followed his illustrious career will recall it was Nathan Lyon’s direct hit that ran him out at the Gabba in November 2017 in the first Ashes Test, just when he looked set to make a real breakthrough England first Test hundred. Lyon’s value to Australia since then has assumed Warne proportions; he really is that good. In last year’s Ashes series, Lyon helped Australia to a 2-0 lead at Lord’s, but his calf injury sustained there then meant, not just that he missed the rest of the series, but from then on England held the upper hand. Only the weather at Old Trafford prevented England completing the first ever 3-2 comeback in an Ashes series. When studying Lyon close up again this week, you can’t help but be impressed by the energy that goes into his action, how much late dip he is able to generate in the flight, how much he is clearly admired by his new teammates and how quickly he is able to get through his overs. Most were completed in less than 3 minutes, with virtually no let up for the batsman facing. He owns the stage, regularly interacts with the non-striking batsman and is a worthy successor to that Victorian genius and Hampshire legend, who so sadly passed away now over two years ago. Deliberately going round the wicket to the right handers in the first innings generated the patches of rough that he was then able to exploit from the other end in the second. A battle-hardened campaigner and a superb signing for Lancashire, unless you are Tom Hartley.  

A few Lancashire members, making the long trip down and sitting nearby, were quick to seize on his non-selection at the toss, quipping that "this was their 'B Team' - with Bohannon, Balderson, Blatherwick, Bailey and Bruce all in the side. The 'A Team' of Anderson and 'Artley were still back home up north!" Their mood - like many England fans and the team management who are desperate to see Hartley and Bashir playing as much red ball cricket as possible for their respective counties this summer - will not have improved after just 13 overs of Hampshire's second innings. Tom Bailey, instead of bowling seam up, ceremoniously changed his boots and reverted to bowling off spin. He was the fourth part time spinner used in the match by this point, after Wells, Gubbins and Prest had all turned their arms over in the two first innings. How do you explain this, especially when champions Surrey are seemingly perfecting the art of using part time spin? In last season’s County Championship they took just 17 wickets with spin, whereas 232 were shared evenly between a seven-strong battery of frontline pace bowlers — five of whom often appeared in the same XI. Deep fast-bowling strength was their championship winning formula too the year before. In this embryonic campaign so far, Lawrence and Steel have already taken 18 of the 26 wickets Surrey have claimed.

Vis-a-vis run outs and early season rustiness, the biggest negative for Hampshire before lunch on Day One was the seemingly needless demise of Fletcha Middleton. The first thing to say was the "Lyonesque" direct hit from Balderson at the keeper’s end meant I could immediately give it out from a superb vantage point at the top of the Shane Warne stand. The second thing is maybe a plea for clemency for both batsmen in that they are not used to batting together - with Orr on debut. They were finding life so tough against the new ball that they were absolutely right to try and maximise the left-hand and right-hand opening batting combination, by looking to pinch quick singles in the ring and keep the board moving. After that, it is just those obvious questions surrounding culpability in a mix-up which make this game so fascinating, challenging and cruel. Was there a single there? Did Middleton call early enough? Should Orr have responded immediately by sprinting through and diving to make it? Should Orr have sent him back earlier? Could Middleton have turned to get back quicker? Do coaches ever specifically practise with players (and particularly where there are new partnerships), during pre-season square practices, calling and running between the wickets? Those were the short term questions; longer term, and far more tellingly after both innings in which they both failed, can Orr and Middleton develop an understanding which creates a truly effective opening partnership, thus solving Hampshire’s biggest problem of the last 5 years? For Lancashire poor George Bell evened it up, but his disappointment could not have been more painful or different. Looking for his maiden ton, and 99 not out in only his fifteenth first-class innings, he tried to run on a misfield. Holland's direct hit at the same end as the earlier run out of Middleton produced the same result. Whilst on the subject of young and emerging talent, it was very evident again that Hampshire's Tom Prest can truly shine at this level. His reverse sweeps against Lyon to put pressure back on Australia’s third highest ever wicket-taker in Test Cricket, followed by a slog sweep six, were among his highlights in a very attacking and attractive first innings 85 made off just 119 balls. He followed that up in the second innings with an unbeaten and untroubled 47 off 70 balls. 

Earlier on Day Two when Lancashire began their reply in response to Hampshire’s 367, this writer was intrigued to see how many their two left-handed openers would muster together. They were unlikely to match what had been busily unfolding at Edgbaston, where poor Durham took their first Warwickshire wicket at 341 and their second at 562. Rob Yates was first to go for 191; his opening partner and former Lancashire batsman/ keeper Alex Davies smashed 256 off 311 balls. First wicket partnerships around the country are either feast or famine currently: none of Hampshire, Notts, Somerset, Worcestershire, Essex, Kent, Yorkshire, Gloucestershire, Derbyshire or Northants reached 25 in their first innings, whereas Surrey didn’t lose their first wicket until 167, which was still less - to be fair - than half of Warwickshire’s 341! Wells and Jennings got through the new ball relatively untroubled against Abbas and Abbott, adding eventually 87, before they were parted. Jennings advanced down the pitch regularly to all three Hampshire seamers, made the most of the two lives offered, and occupied the crease with customary purpose to finish with 172. Seven other players, though, made more even than that in this second round of games. The stand out most promising English left-hand opener on the county circuit - in my opinion - made the highest score. Northants’ Emilio Gay became the third batsman this season to pass 250 before the middle of April, when he was eventually run out for 261 at Wantage Road against the luckless Middlesex; it was they who also suffered last week at the hands of Northeast at Lord’s. Just like Joe Clarke, who scored his 22nd first-class ton this week for Notts, Emilio may just have what it takes to play in the international arena. When Prithvi Shaw finishes at the IPL and rejoins Northants, that is an opening partnership definitely worth keeping an eye on. 

Still on Middlesex, their game saw 1105 runs scored at Northampton for the loss of just 8 wickets. Durham, meanwhile, also amassed 517 and yet still ended up following on at Edgbaston! Going into the last day, all the first and second division matches remained in progress, with the draw the most likely option in nearly all. Dropped catches, run outs and missed run outs are to be avoided at all costs when wickets are proving harder to come by with the Kookaburra ball. Hampshire being docked points for the Essex wicket at home last season - and with a further punishment hanging over them if it recurs - meant this first Utilita Bowl wicket of the season looked particularly flat. Hardly a ball went to a slip on the off side all game. Time taken out of the game at the Oval on the last morning prevented Surrey getting over the line against Somerset, leaving Essex as the only first division side to register a win so far this season. Worcestershire are competing superbly so far in a league where wins are simply going to be scarcer on all the evidence seen so far.

The first and last word this week ends poignantly though back with spin. Firstly, on a happy note, Alex Thomson's 11 wickets in the match for Derbyshire was a triumph for another player I remember well from umpiring his games regularly at school all those years ago for King's Macclesfield and then Denstone College in Staffordshire. Secondly, ahead of the Hampshire v Lancashire game -  and with the exciting prospect of watching a world class Australian off-spinner wheeling away with the aforementioned Kookaburra ball - I gained a proper reality check and reminder about the importance of “carpe diem”, listening to Daniel Norcross on Thursday’s World Parkinson’s Day. He was interviewing former Hampshire and England off- spinner Shaun Udal whose daily nightmare is to trying managing this incredibly cruel disease. As arguably Hampshire’s finest ever off-break bowler, Udal took 1,330 wickets in a senior career lasting 21 years. Having made 10 one-day international appearances for England in the mid-'90s, he only made his Test debut in Multan at the age of 36. His five appearances for England that winter, culminated in him famously taking 4-14 in the final innings in Mumbai, to help his side to a series-equalling victory. "You've got to make the most of every good day. And some days there are bad days, which is really hard to take, but the people around you do suffer as well - you've got to have a strong network and try to have a positive mindset." Sport continues to play a huge part in his life moving forwards. Now aged 55 and five years on from his diagnosis, he remains an inspiration, long after retiring as one of Hampshire’s home grown superstars. A wonderful ambassador for the County game, a great team man, a winner in one-day finals at Lord’s - I have only great memories of watching Warne and Udal make spin bowling seem an art form all of its own. 

That was then followed by the incredibly sad news - during Day Four of these county games - regarding the passing of that true icon of Kent and England cricket, Derek Underwood, aged 78. He was as lethal an opponent as you could imagine in most conditions. He was also an incredibly mild-mannered, friendly and humble man, whose elder brother became a very good personal friend of mine over many years at my local cricket club Elworth, in South Cheshire. Keith, who also very sadly passed away last year was a very decent cricketer in his own right, but he could not have been more proud of Derek, whose record of 297 Test victims in 86 Tests is an England record for a spinner. When he introduced me to Derek on a couple of occasions, I was just struck by his total humility and understated greatness. Caught Knott bowled Underwood was only rivalled by caught Marsh bowled Lillee as a child. In the days well before the use of DRS, he finished with 2,465 first-class wickets at the astounding average of 20.28. He took ten wickets in a first-class match on 47 occasions; five wickets or more on 153 occasions. He was, simply put, a match-winner. He was also a wonderful family man who suffered cruelly with dementia towards the end of his lfe. His remains, though, a unique surname in this great game; it is one which will always conjure up so many special memories of a unique approach to the wicket and rhythmic bowling action which was so often just unplayable, particularly on drying pitches. He was able to alter his pace, bring all forms of dismissals into play and restrict batsmen's scoring options, like only the select few very greatest bowlers of all time have ever been consistently able to do.

Week Five: Tuesday 23rd April 2024

The Dukes Ball was back to replace the hotly debated Kookaburra. How did we know this from the boundary edge? Because after eight overs, it had already gone out of shape and needed to be replaced! Hampshire ended up bowling with four different balls on Day One. Not a single one of them swung off the straight, often in helpful overhead conditions. Admittedly, wickets fell more regularly at other venues, but from the moment Warwickshire won the toss, the bat was on top on another docile Southampton pitch. Warwickshire's in form top three all showed form and attacking intent on a strip which was a long way over towards the Nursery Ground; it was either one or four on that side of this huge ground where the outfield was markedly drier than last week.

This week’s diary starts in Portsmouth and ends in Portsmouth. Having attended Day One of the Hampshire game at the Utitila Bowl and watch Alex Davies cruise past three figures again, it was time to head south east down the M27 to watch Pompey be crowned League One Champions. It meant more to the six others with me and I confess to keep checking my phone for the Hampshire score throughout the game. The overlap between football and cricket used to be so much greater. When I started watching in the 1969/70 season, Ron Tindall was about to succeed George Smith as the Portsmouth manager. Conditional on signing earlier for Chelsea as a player, Tindall negotiated an arrangement with the club, whereby he was allowed to miss the first and last months of the football season to play cricket for Surrey. Tindall scored 5446 runs in first-class matches at an average of 24.86, including two centuries and with a highest score of 109 not out. He also bowled off spin, when Laker and Locke were on England duty, taking 150 wickets at 32.38, with best figures in an innings of 5–41. The days of Mike Barnard and then later Chris Balderstone and Phil Neale excelling at both sports are simply unimaginable nowadays. 

Coming off the back of an epic 343-run opening stand against Worcestershire at Edgbaston last week, Alex Davies continued his run-fuelled start to the Vitality County Championship season with an attacking century, as Warwickshire piled on first day runs against Hampshire. The New Bears skipper Davies, who knows the ground so well from his Southern Brave experience, has already totted up 481 runs this season – over 60 per cent of the runs he managed in 2023 – with scores of 36, 256 and on this occasion 149 and 40 to lead in both innings from the front. He was partnered with equally high-scoring Rob Yates and Will Rhodes; they are now are up to 370 and 348 runs this campaign after Yates made 69 and 84*, and Rhodes 81 and 25 at the Utilita Bowl. Warwickshire ended Day One very handily placed on 340 for four. Liam Dawson claimed his first two wickets in what was to be another five wicket haul. As a cricketer, he is beginning to enter Darren Stevens territory as someone who just gets better with age in all parts of the game. He is the mainstay of the attack in terms of wickets and overs bowled, a brilliant fielder and a batsman who so rarely plays a false shot against seam or spin.

While I had time off to go to Fratton Park with friends, Warwickshire set Hampshire a challenge to avoid the follow-on after reaching 455 all out on Day Two on a very flat pitch. Fletcha Middleton and Nick Gubbins unhurriedly scored half-centuries in reply, adding 124 together for the unbroken second wicket to get Hampshire to 140 for one – 315 behind the visitors – at the end of the day. The city of Portsmouth (with its record number of pubs per square mile) celebrated a return to the Championship, meanwhile, despite defeat at home to Wigan. Awake early on Day Three, I left my hotel in Old Portsmouth, in order to retrace some steps from exactly 50 years ago. Warwickshire were the visitors at Burnaby Road for my first ever game back in 1974. The King's Gate and the pavilion are two of the reminders of how the ground used to look, when Hampshire played there nearly every year in the 20th Century when first-class cricket was able to be staged in this country. Two wonderful new additions since then, which I was able to photograph (see below) on my phone, are the Spinnaker Tower and the Charles Dickens monument in the Guildhall Square.

Week Five (continued): Tuesday 23rd April 2024

It was only in the second session on Day Three, after Nick Gubbins had already gone to three figures (making 119 off 249 deliveries with a strike rate of 49.37), that Fletcha Middleton celebrated his maiden Vitality County Championship century. Former Academy graduate Middleton, who was vey impressive in last season’s Metro Bank One Day Cup run to the Trent Bridge Final, amassed 116, having added 213 runs for the second wicket with fellow centurion Gubbins. Having gone past 50 on a number of occasions in last season's Championship - but not being able to convert those scores to the magic three figures - this was a special moment for the player and his family. Tony, his father, made his maiden first-class hundred against Kent 34 years ago this week. At one stage, in the nervous nineties, Fletcha was confronted with four midwickets, three short covers, a man under the helmet close in on the offside and a solitary slip. They were all having a word and it was not about the exciting FA Cup Semi-Final or anything to do with that late offside at Wembley! A breakthrough moment for a batsman with great composure, a reliable technique and set-up, as well as excellent powers of concentration. His areas for development will definitely include rotating the strike more effectively, by hitting gaps and creating better angles from shots which currently are often straight to fielders in the ring. There are times, though, particularly as a young player making your way in the game, when you just have to play for yourself to secure a place in a team; batsmen have always been judged on weight of runs and personal landmarks.  

More significantly in the context of this game, Hampshire lost five wickets for 45 runs, which meant a score of 103 for six in that second session. The top six on the scorecard, with Fuller promoted unsuccessfully above Vince in the order to try and up the rate significantly in the hunt for a second batting point in the twenty overs remaining before the 110 over cut-off, was a strange looking mix of four single-figure scores and two centuries. Liam Dawson and Ben Brown then steadied the ship with an important 41-run stand. However, Hampshire’s slow scoring throughout the innings meant they only picked up a single batting bonus point. By way of comparison, Warwickshire reached their first batting point in 67.2 overs, while Hampshire only reached 250 and their first point in 93.4 overs. When Hampshire were dismissed for 365, the deficit was still ninety. 

Warwickshire continued to bat at nearly 5 an over on Day Four, There was to be no declaration because of the rain. Warwickshire deservedly claimed 3 more points than Hampshire's 10 for the draw. In the table, Hampshire sit 6th on 30 points. Essex who hammered Lancashire, are top on 57, closely followed by Champions Surrey on 49. They beat Kent at Canterbury and host Hampshire at the Oval this week. A good friend and loyal Hampshire supporter from Portsmouth on leaving the ground at the end of this game at the Utilita Bowl summed things up well for me when he felt the season just hadn't got going yet for Hampshire. Our Great Expectations could yet be replaced by Hard Times in Division One. From 11.01 on Day One, Warwickshire had certainly been in the ascendancy, making good use of the toss and pitch. The injuries to both Barker and Turner have significantly depleted our attack. If there is to be a Championship challenge this season, then the trip to South London probably needs to herald a first win or a draw with at least five bonus points. Elsewhere in the country, Joe Clarke, with another 213 not out at Taunton, is surely leading the charge for international honours, Middlesex have announced they may well have to consider moving away from Lord's and five batsmen are averaging over a hundred in the County Championship this season so far. Three of them were on show for Warwickshire in this game and - talking of real personal landmarks - in the race to a thousand runs by the end of May, Alex D leads Joe C by just one run. He may not have done it by the 1st of May, but back on the 17th June 1992 at Grace Road, the first batsman in the country to pass 1,000 first-class runs that English summer was a certain TC Middleton. 

Week Six: Tuesday 30th April 2024

For the latest current round of matches in Division One, it was a trip to the Oval for Day One of Surrey v Hampshire and then Kidderminster for Day Four of Worcestershire v Somerset. The contrast in facilities matched those of the weather conditions. The difference between watching Surrey and Worcestershire at home on these two particular days was like comparing top flight sport at the new White Hart Lane, in gorgeous sunshine, with Kenilworth Road in a swirling wind. None of that should diminish, though, from the brilliant effort Worcestershire are making on and off the field both to compete in every game in Division One, while trying to stage cricket on a club ground with very little money. The main reason for going to watch Worcestershire play Somerset is that Hampshire play neither of them both home and away this season. Worse than that, we only play either of them for the first time in mid and late September. One of the joys of being a County Member, who regularly attends matches, is the chance to watch all the teams in the division; you can then properly gauge their strengths and weaknesses, while looking out for those young hopefuls pushing their claims to "brook" that gap and play in the international arena. 

At the Oval this week, Gus Atkinson did just that, as he hopes to be given the chance this summer to begin to try and fill the huge boots left behind by Stuart Broad's retirement. It was of course on this ground late last summer that Stuart signed off his truly stellar international career in fairy tale style. Just like Stuart, the gas holder behind the scoreboard is also very much heading into retirement. Surrey County Cricket Club are very adept at preserving heritage and history on their ground in the forms of permanent displays, plaques, honours boards and framed photographs; it is somehow very fitting, therfore, that there is a preservation order on the iconic, if undeniably ugly, giant metal frame of the old gas holder, now in amongst all the cranes and building works that are further altering the skyline for future generations watching at this famous old ground. When it came to issuing preservation orders on their own wicket, one former England player - who also looks somewhat ugly at the crease - showed his enduring quality, yet again, in the heat of the battle to play a key role in tormenting Hampshire.  Since Rory Burns was dropped by England, he has captained his County to two Championship victories and in this game his obduracy, shot selection, ability to leave the ball outside off stump, rotation of strike and occupation of the crease showed why - under a previous regime - he is international class. It seems that Hampshire have consistently found no other England batsman on the county circuit harder to remove than either Gary Ballance and Rory Burns in the last ten years. 

On the first day of the game between Surrey and Hampshire at the hugely impressive Oval, each of the three sessions produced a different kind of drama, each very much of its own. In the opening session, on a green coloured wicket which clearly had a lot of grass left on it, Hampshire really struggled. Just like the constant stream of red buses down the Harleyford Road - as celebrated in years gone by Blowers on TMS - Hampshire lost wickets in clusters. Throughout a brightly lit sunlit day, Surrey and Hampshire seamers all bowled accurately and intelligently, taking 15 wickets in total for just 274 hard-earned runs. The pick of them was the Australian Dan Worrall, who has a slightly unconventional curved approach towards the wicket, which certainly doesn't prevent him get getting plenty of lateral movement and occasional awkward bounce. In 12 months time, when he completes his three year full-time residency in the UK, he will be available to play for England, nine years after playing three one-day internationals for Australia. It is not inconceivable he comes into Ashes contention, based on current form over the past couple of seasons for the series down under in 25/26 or at home in 2027. He was ably supported in this game by fellow seamers Roach, Atkinson and Clark, consigning leading wicket-taker Steel very much to the wings. He was also particularly ably supported by Ollie Pope in the slips, who took a Surrey all time record 8 catches in the match (where none are as a keeper or being taken off one's own bowling). It actually could have been 10, if he had pouched everything that went into his golden hands over the two innings. Of much more concern for the Surrey run-machine (and definitely against Hampshire at the Oval) in years gone by is the undeniable fact that since that brilliant 196, early in the India series, he has really struggled for form or a score of any size. 

Ali Orr, who has found the going tough so far since his South Coast move from Sussex to Hampshire, can very much empathise with that feeling currently. A big double century for his former county seems a good while ago now, although here he hit a couple of positive lofted drives for four which suggested this might be his day. He would have been very upset, therefore, at his tame dismissal for 26, clipping the ball off his legs straight to square-leg. Earlier, his opening partner and last week’s centurion, Fletcha Middleton, fell to the first of many a fine catch at slip by Pope off Worrall. James Vince nicked off to a rising ball from the impressive Worrall, before Prest went first ball to a fuller ball which he probably didn’t have to play. From 49-4, Hampshire never really recovered and, by the 45th over, they were already all out for 151. Surrey in reply were soon in very similar strife at 44-4, with Mohammed Abbas and Kyle Abbott very much back to their most dangerous best. For what turned out to be the only two hours in the whole match, Hampshire's experienced and skilful seamers then seriously threatened to put themselves on an even keel with the hosts. Sibley was playing down the Bakerloo line to an Abbott special - on the District and Circle - which removed the off stump. The corridor of uncertainty had an intensive interrogation with Pope playing on to Fuller and the imposing Jamie Smith also out bowled by Wheal. Only towards the end of the day did the batsmen finally start to look more settled: at one end, Ryan Patel played fluently before he was unlucky to be bowled by a Mohammad Abbas ball that shot through shin high, while at the other, Surrey captain Rory Burns, who has already been in good form so far this season, made 39 not out. From the point where nightwatchman Roach arrived at the end of Day One to the end of the game, Surrey never looked back.

On Day Two Roach ended up actually facing 96 balls for his 19, before the 6th wicket finally fell with Surrey now 35 ahead. Burns duly ploughed on, eventually making 113 off 256 balls. Jordan Clark, batting at 9, made a century in under 100 balls, leaving Hampshire over 200 behind on first innings. Sadly, we couldn't take the game deep into Day Four, as Worrall continued to torment us with figures of 25.2-4-47-5. If things couldn't seem to get any worse for Hampshire, they duly did with the announcement that the slow over rate deduction of 2 points, in an innings defeat, left us leaving the Oval with just one point. Flicking through my newly acquired 2024 Playfair Cricket Annual, I hastily asembled another Surrey XI of Jason Roy, Will Jacks, Laurie Evans, Ben Foakes, Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Jamie Overton, Tom Lawes, Chris Jordan, Matt Dunn and Reece Topley. They are all currently on Surrey's staff and yet their depth of squad is such none were needed in this very one-sided game again for the home side. Indeed, for good measure and right on cue, England all-rounder Will Jacks smashed an unbeaten century off just 41 balls to help Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Gujarat Titans by nine wickets in the Indian Premier League, instead of playing at the Oval. Chasing 201 for victory, Jacks bludgeoned 10 sixes and five fours to help RCB reach their total with four overs to spare. Jacks hammered 28 runs off one Rashid Khan over, including four sixes, and shared an unbeaten 166-run stand with Virat Kohli. Kohli finished on 70 not out from 44 deliveries in RCB's 206-1. World's away is the phrase the comes to mind, when assessing Surrey's resources compared with all other counties in England, the money being splashed around in the IPL and, finally, on the field, scoring rates currently in the modern game compared to even the recent past. My trip to Kidderminster two days later was very much a step back in time - which is always welcome for a lover of county cricket! 

One final note to this Surrey v Hampshire game is exactly the one about scoring rates and batting tempo. One the way down on the train to the Oval, I read with great interest Laurence Booth’s editorial piece at the start of the 2024 Wisden. In his review of last summer, he wrote, “Ashes cricket has traditionally been a study in national stereotypes: Australia throw punches, England parry. But the roles were reversed last summer, and then some. As the two captains stood in the Oval sunshine at the end of a pulsating 2-2 draw, they personified the contrast: the matinee-idol clean shave of Pat Cummins, framed by his Baggy Green and cricket whites; and, beside him, beneath a bucket hat, the bearded Ben Stokes, tattooed biceps bulging from a blue gilet. England oozed rebellion, Australia convention.” As a clear admirer of the Bazball approach, he went on to reference England's approach to going 2-0 down in the series, " England’s elan made it all the more curious that some were waiting for Bazball to fail. Among Australians, whose team had never previously given up a 2–0 lead in 146 years of Test cricket, this was perhaps understandable. But the speed with which English critics pounced on Stokes’s declaration on the first evening at Edgbaston (a gesture in keeping with the approach that had brought 11 wins from 13 Tests), or their hook-happy collapse at Lord’s (they still reached stumps decently placed at 278 for four in reply to 416), reflected the conservatism that lurks close to the surface in this country. Ignoring the fact that England’s overnight improvement had intrinsic risk, these critics cried out for caution, apparently seeing in Bazball another piece of dumbing down, iconoclasm for the sake of it, even an act of cowardice, when application was the braver option. But Stokes and Brendon McCullum understood their players rather better. In the next three Tests, England scored faster than they had during the two defeats: 4.79 an over at Headingley, 5.49 at Old Trafford, 4.96 at The Oval. Previous England teams would have waved the white flag. This lot hoisted the skull and crossbones, and thank goodness for that.” 

I quote all of this because the sort of knock Burns played in this game is totally unlike anything Crawley, Duckett, Root and Brooks would ever serve up now for county or country. I am also a total convert of the way they play - particularly in terms of grabbing the public's interest in a crowded sporting calendar - but I also came way from the Oval wishing a Hampshire player had been able to do what Burns had done in this match. Pope in the field, Worrall with the ball, Clark with the bat were all Surrey contenders for man of the match; none in my view came close to Burns, who really wrestled the initiative away from Hampshire at 44-4. Whenever I see that gas holder in years to come, long after he has retired, the unconventional and ugly-looking Burns occupying the crease and somehow defying all the odds with his idiosyncratic movements will be there in the background symbolically taking another game away from Hampshire in Surrey's favour. Maybe all the new builds and flats around it will dwarf that iconic structure and Hampshire will move in as winning tenants at this grand old London venue in years to come. It is, after all, always good to dream! 

Week Seven: Tuesday 7th May 2024

So in the absence of any Hampshire game, the main focus was on the games at Taunton, where Somerset were hosting Essex, and Old Trafford where, depending on the bonus points and result, Kent and Lancashire could both move above Hampshire. This would leave us propping up the league already a quarter of the way through the County Championship season. The Somerset v Essex game was over in less than days and 37 wickets fell in the process. Out went Bashir before the game; out went the idea of any spin at all on a green top; out went every batsmen in the game for less than 43; out went Essex’s hopes ultimately of keeping pace with Surrey. In came Somerset’s fifth seamer instead of any spinner; in came Somerset’s renewed hopes of contesting for the championship with a second win of the season; in came a Bazball approach by the home team’s openers to win the game in the space of just 15 overs at the start of the fourth innings; in came surely interest from the pitch inspectors, who probably should have a second home in the beautiful Quantocks! After all the discussion in the media about the switch back away from the Kookaburra, much more interesting was the various dismissals attributed to Duke and Ball in this game. In Somerset's first innings, Jake Ball on debut was caught Harry Duke also on debut; then in Essex's second innings, Duke was caught Rew bowled Ball. The Lancashire v Kent ended in victory for Kent, where skipper Bell-Drummond guided his team home in another low-scoring game. Hampshire are left now ninth in the Division One Table after 4 games with 31 points. Lancashire are tenth with 27.