2010's

Quiz Question: Who were the three batsmen out in the middle when Hampshire won their first T20 Title, off the last ball of the Final, at the Rose Bowl in 2010?

See the bottom of the article for the answer

Champions: Nottinghamshire, CB40: Warwickshire, T20: Hampshire

After more than 30 years, the first-class counties reverted to just three competitions and the two original limited-overs competitions were ‘merged’ into the CB40 with three leagues, followed by semi-finals and a Lord’s Final, held on a Saturday evening – which was generally unpopular.

Michael Carberry made his Test debut v Bangladesh, scoring 30 and 34 and England won by 181 runs. Mascarenhas was appointed captain again, but he was injured in the IPL pre-season and replaced variously by Pothas and Cork. There was a selection of players from overseas including H Herath, P Hughes, N McKenzie, D Christian, and Abdul Razzaq. Cork was captain in the T20, which Hampshire won for first time with Finals Day at the Rose Bowl. The weather was not good, but Hampshire beat Essex in the semi-final by six wickets and met Somerset in the Final after Duckworth/Lewis calculations had resolved their match v Nottinghamshire. Somerset posted 173-6 (Cork 2-24) with their big hitter Pollard forced to retire hurt. Hampshire replied well and looked to be winning until two late wickets including McKenzie (52). Christian injured himself and required a runner for the last ball with Hampshire needing one to level the scores and take the cup. The runner, the non-striker and Christian all set off, Somerset fielded but failed to spot Christian’s indiscretion, he got home, and Hampshire had won. Briggs’ 31 wickets was a record in one T20 season for Hampshire.

Hampshire struggled in the Championship. Adams and Carberry passed 1,000 runs with McKenzie, Ervine and Vince all performing well although Lumb was injured for much of the season. Tomlinson (46) and Cork (45) led the bowlers although with little support – Kabir Ali arrived from Worcestershire but was often unfit and played in only four matches. Another Test bowler, Simon Jones came on a match contract, seeking fitness. He played in six T20 matches and one each in the CB40 and the Championship.

Batting at number seven, Sean Ervine’s 237* v Somerset at the Rose Bowl was the highest ever score by a Hampshire batsman in the lower half of the batting order. Adams set a record of over 2,500 runs in the three competitions for the season. Late in the season, at Scarborough, he and 19-year-old Vince added a new fourth wicket partnership record of 278, both falling just short of double hundreds. In the following match, Adams scored 194 from 508 balls in 635 minutes – both calculated as county records – in a vain attempt to stave off defeat at Liverpool. No one else reached 50 for Hampshire in either innings.

Hampshire’s next and penultimate match was a ‘relegation-decider’ at Canterbury, and they were bowled out for 204 of which Adams made 84. However, Tomlinson’s 4-59 helped them take a lead of 22 and four half-centuries allowed Hampshire to declare at 355-9. Kent lost wickets regularly, Cork and Briggs took four each and a fine catch by Adams sealed the victory and another year in Division One.

In May, Michael Lumb and Kevin Pietersen, then both of Hampshire, played for England when they won the T20 World Cup in Barbados. However, Pietersen found travelling from his London home to Hampshire too demanding and he moved to Surrey before the end of the season. In six seasons with Hampshire, he played in seven first-class matches, with three centuries and 17 ‘List A’ matches (HS 98), averaging around 43 in each competition.

The Rose Bowl was voted the Best International Ground in an ECB survey of fans. Bournemouth won the Southern Electric Premier League, with Hampshire Academy runners-up for the second time.

Quiz answer: Dan Christian was on strike. Jimmy Adams was his runner. Sean Ervine was backing up at the non-striker’s end. 

Quiz Question: Who were Hampshire’s two opening batsmen who shared four separate century stands for the first wicket in the 2011 County Championship, including one against Champions Lancashire at Blackpool?

See the bottom of the article for the answer

Champions: Lancashire, CB40: Surrey, T20: Leicestershire

At their AGM, the members elected the surviving members of 1961’s Championship-winning side as Life Vice-Presidents. Dominic Cork was appointed captain and Imran Tahir returned as overseas player. Hampshire signed three other South Africans, Friedel de Wet, Johannes Myburgh and McKenzie who returned. As English T20 Champions, Hampshire played in the Caribbean T20 Competition in January, reaching but losing the Final. During that competition they met Canada, Barbados, Leeward Islands, Trinidad & Tobago and the Windward Islands for the first time. They reached a second consecutive Finals Day in the T20 but after a tie in their semi-final with Somerset they lost in the ‘super over’.

Hampshire struggled again in the Championship and were relegated. Carberry suffered from a serious illness and played in just nine Championship matches, averaging 56.64. At Taunton, he and Adams added 373 for Hampshire’s second wicket, a new county record and against Yorkshire at the Rose Bowl, Carberry and McKenzie put on 523, a record stand for any wicket for Hampshire and Carberry scored their fifth triple century. In July, Hampshire had been fined points for a pitch with excessive turn despite a thrilling match v Nottinghamshire. For the next match v Yorkshire, the pitch was flat, the record stand was set; 1,171 runs were scored for the loss of just 13 wickets over four days.

Only McKenzie passed 1,000 runs although Dawson with 908 at 36.32 showed promise. The bowling was weak, Kabir Ali again missed more matches than he played and only Briggs with 38 wickets at 36.65 passed 30 in the season. Hampshire drew seven of their 16 matches, equalled only by Yorkshire who were also relegated.  Hampshire failed to qualify in the CB40 although Chris Wood with 18 wickets enjoyed a promising season.

The highlight of 2011 at the Rose Bowl was the inaugural Test Match v Sri Lanka in June although after a spell of dry weather it was badly rain-affected and drawn. Chris Tremlett returned to the Rose Bowl and won Man-of-the-Match with 6-48 and Nigel Gray was awarded the Test Match Special ‘Champagne Moment’. Some of Hampshire’s younger players acted as substitutes for England and Adam Rouse held a catch. England beat India in a day/night match in September but that too was badly rain-affected and reduced to 23 overs per side.

Nic Pothas was the beneficiary. At the end of the season Cork, Pothas, Lumb, Jones, Myburgh, de Wet and Tahir all left Hampshire. Imran Tahir would make his Test match debut for South Africa. Former players Jon Ayling and Iain Brunschweiler left the coaching staff. Craig White came from Yorkshire to replace Ayling.

Havant won the Southern Electric Premier League, with Bournemouth runners-up.

Quiz answer: Jimmy Adams and Lim Dawson. They put on 181and 136 v Somerset at the Rose Bowl, 171 against Durham at the Rose Bowl and 103 against Lancashire at Blackpool.

Quiz Question: Who was Man of the Match in the Clydesdale Bank 40 Over Trophy Final at Lord’s on 15th September 2012?

Champions: Warwickshire, CB40: Hampshire, T20: Hampshire

Adams was appointed captain – Hampshire’s first post-War Hampshire-born captain, with Mascarenhas leading in the T20, Simon Katich returned as overseas player, although Shahid Afridi did not obtain his visa so did not.

Hampshire secured two very important financial deals. Ageas Insurance paid for the naming rights as the ground became known as the Ageas Bowl, while Eastleigh Council took over the lease to the ground and embarked on building the northern end hotel and media centre. These two deals secured Hampshire’s immediate financial future and they also chose to focus on the development of their own young players, signing fewer ‘star’ names from overseas and other counties. At the season’s end, Rod Bransgrove handed over as Chief Executive to David Mann, while retaining the position of Chairman.

The investment in their younger players paid immediate dividends as Hampshire won two trophies for the first time, the FPT20 v Yorkshire at Cardiff and the CB40 Final at Lord’s v Warwickshire. Both produced thrilling Finals. In the T20, Hampshire posted 150-6 v Yorkshire and seemed to be winning comfortably but after McKenzie claimed a catch that was not confirmed by the umpires, the survivor, Miller took Yorkshire within 10 runs of victory. Adams (43) and Wood 3-26 made the key contributions, while in earlier rounds, Australian Glenn Maxwell who had arrived originally to play for South Wilts, was a useful all-round player, not least for his very rapid 60* at Chelmsford.  The CB40 Final at Lord’s went to the last ball with Carter of Warwickshire needing one run to win. Kabir Ali bowled outside off-stump, Carter missed, Bates gathered, and Hampshire had two trophies. Hampshire had made 244 for 5 off 40 overs after loading the toss. Despite England’s Ian Bell making a customary attractive 81 (top score in the match), Warwickshire could only muster 244 - but crucially with seven wickets down.

Danny Briggs missed the second Final because he was selected by England in 20 and 50-over competitions. On his T20 international debut just prior to his 21st birthday he became the youngest Hampshire player ever to represent England and the first England player ever born in the Isle of Wight.

In Division Two of the Championship, Hampshire had the highest run-scorer (Adams), wicket-taker (Balcombe), catcher (Dawson) and wicketkeeper (Bates) but finished fourth and did not win promotion, not least because they lost the last three Championship matches of the season. Balcombe batting at number 11 v Leicestershire, scored a Hampshire record of 73, sharing a last wicket partnership of 168 with Wood whose 105* was his maiden century. Dawson held seven catches in the match at Northampton, equalling Hampshire’s record set by Dean (1947) and Maru (1988). Balcombe’s 8-71 v Gloucestershire at the Ageas Bowl were Hampshire’s best-ever figures on their new ground. At the season’s end, as T20 Champions, Hampshire competed in the Champions Trophy in South Africa but lost the first two qualifying matches and were eliminated. Their season had lasted six months. It had been one of the wettest English summers during which Hampshire lost nearly 30% of playing time in the Championship (over 100 hours) and over 25% in all competitions. Only Yorkshire exceeded 30% in both aspects.

Hampshire’s former wicketkeeper/batsman Neil McCorkell reached his 100th birthday in March 2012 although sadly he died just short of his next one in early 2013. At the time of his death he had been one of only six pre-War English first-class cricketers still alive and two others, JE Manners and L Harrison were also from Hampshire. The oldest, and first debutant is GC Perkins of Northamptonshire (debut 1934). Vic Cannings was abroad before the war so made his debut afterwards, but he too is in his nineties and older than Leo Harrison.

England played both tourists, the West Indies and South Africa in limited-overs internationals at the ground. Groundsman, Nigel Gray was awarded a Testimonial. Simon Katich chose to move to Lancashire for 2013 and Kabir Ali who had played just 17 first-class matches in his three years with Hampshire followed him. Bilal Shafayat scored 93 on debut v Derbyshire and played in eight matches but was not offered another contract.

Cage Cricket, a new form of the game aimed principally at inner-city youngsters was developed in Portsmouth by former Hampshire batsman Lawrie Prittipaul and Trevor McArdle. They launched it formally, with the support of Ian Botham and Rod Bransgrove, at the Houses of Parliament, while in 2013 it was featured in The Times and on Radio Four. South Wilts won the Southern Electric Premier League, with Bashley (Rydal) runners-up.

Quiz answer: Jimmy Adams for his captaincy, two catches and 66 not out in Hampshire’s last-ball win, defending 244 in 40 overs..

Quiz Question: Who was the only player to take ten wickets for Hampshire in a first-class match in 2013? He did so in the last game of the season - at home to Essex - in only his fifth game for Hampshire in the County Championship.

In 2013 Hampshire celebrated 150 years since the formation of the County Cricket Club.

At their AGM, the members elected the 13 members of 1973’s Championship-winning side as Life Vice Presidents. A few weeks later the club announced the death of another Life Vice President, Mrs Marjorie Eagar, widow of EDR Eagar. There was no beneficiary. Hampshire’s membership figures stood just below 4,500 - around 1,000 were Life Members, a rising proportion of the total.

Adams continued as captain and Mascarenhas captained the T20 side on returning from the IPL. During the winter, Briggs and Vince toured with England’s limited-overs and Lions sides respectively and Briggs was in England’s T20 squad in the summer. Wicketkeeper Adam Wheater joined Hampshire from Essex. Early in the season, county caps were awarded to Balcombe, Dawson and Vince. The first overseas player, George Bailey joined the Australian Champions League squad in early June and Sohail Tanvir (Pakistan) replaced him.

Immediately prior to a televised, floodlit 40 over home match v Lancashire, Wheater injured his side warming up. Hampshire called for Bates but he was playing for the 2nd XI in Middlesex so, while he travelled to the match, Academy player Thomas Alsop kept wicket and held an excellent catch, standing up to Mascarenhas. Michel Carberry batted through the Hampshire innings and hit a six to win the match, passing his previous highest limited-overs score and reaching 150 not out. In the home Championship game against Lancashire, Hampshire used nine bowlers as the match drifted to a draw and five bowled left-handed, which may have been a record in a Championship innings by Hampshire. One week later in similar circumstances they repeated it against Northamptonshire. Glenn Querl from Zimbabwe played on trial in a first-class match v Loughborough University, but was banned by the ECB shortly afterwards for his action, along with Jack Taylor of Gloucestershire.

England played New Zealand (ODI) and Australia (T20) at the Ageas Bowl while England’s Women met Australia’s Women in a T20I. In the England v New Zealand match, New Zealand’s 359-3 in 50 overs was a record for a limited-overs international match on the ground and Martin Guptil’s 189* equalled the record limited-overs international score in England and against England (also IVA Richards).

In Midsummer week, the Met Office held a symposium which reported on the likelihood of a sequence of poor summers and a few days later England lost a rain-shortened fifth (of five) Limited Overs Finals, since they introduced the shorter form to professional cricket exactly fifty years earlier. Meanwhile Hampshire reached mid-season in the Championship and YB40 competitions and embarked on another year of T20 cricket. It was not something imagined by those who had formed their club, almost exactly 150 years earlier.

By the end of the season, Hampshire finished fourth in Division Two with 171 points. Lancashire and Northamptonshire were promoted, while Essex finished third on 182 points. The two men who passed 1,000 riuns in the Championship were James Vince (1101 at 61.16) and Liam Dawson (1036 at 49.09). When captain Jimmy Adams made 219* against Worcestershire at home, it was the highest score by a Hampshire captain since Dick Moore’s 316 in 1937. At the end of season Awards Evening, James Vince was named Player of the Year, Michael Carberry was Batsman of the Year and James Tomlinson was Bowler of the Year, A special award was made to Dimitri Mascarenhas who played his last game for Hampshire on September 7th, 2013. He finished having played 195 first-class matches, during which he took 450 wickets and made a top score of 131 against Kent in 2006. In one-day cricket he truly excelled - with 300 wickets in 261 List A matches and 142 wickets in 121 T20 appearances.

Hampshire’s 2013 List A campaign was another very good one. Having won 9 out of 12 games and topping Group two with 18 points, Hampshire lost the home semi-final in early September to Glamorgan by 31 runs. Jim Allenby’s 74 not out helped Glamorgan set 244 from their forty overs and it proved too may, even though Adams and Ervine both past fifty in Hampshire’s reply. Glamorgan went on to lose the Final to Nottinghamshire by 87 runs.

The remarkable highlight of the T20 season was Michael Carberry running two off the last of Hampshire’s innings at home in the Quarter-Final at the Ageas Bowl. It took him to 100 not out. James Vince made 60 in their opening stand of 110. In pursuit of 202, Lancashire ended up losing by one run. Danny Briggs, with 2 for 26, and Liam Dawson, with 1-28, from their four overs each were key to restricting Lancashire in the chase. Surrey proved too strong in the semi-final at Edgbaston, knocking off the 142 required with four balls to spare. It was Hampshire’s fourth consecutive year in a row that they had made it through to T20 Finals Day.  

Over the winter, Michael Carberry was selected to play in the Ashes series down under. By the end of the series, he had played six Test matches for England and reached at least 34 in one innings of all six games. Meanwhile in December, Ageas extended their sponsorship for a further five years, and the club dropped the name of Hawks and Royals for the following season - reverting to just Hampshire for all formats. South Wilts won the Southern Electric Premier League, with Havant the 50 over winners.

Quiz answer: Matt Coles took 6-71 and 4-83 in that last game of the 2013 season.