1959
Champions: Yorkshire.
At the start of the season, Wisden selected D Shackleton and RE Marshall as two of their five Cricketers of the Year. By contrast with 1958, this was a glorious summer yet ironically the first season in which wickets were covered, although this first experiment was retracted after a few seasons. Hampshire won 11 of their 28 matches but slipped to eighth place although they were in contention until mid-August when an exciting drawn match v Surrey at Portsmouth effectively ended the London county’s seven year reign as Champions and Hampshire’s challenge.
Marshall, Gray and Horton all passed 2,000 runs for the season – the first time three men had achieved this for Hampshire, while Gray was the first Hampshire-born man to do so. Dennis Baldry joined Hampshire from Middlesex and scored 151 on debut v Glamorgan at Portsmouth, the second man to do so for Hampshire. To date there have been four more but not one was making his first-class debut. Wicketkeeper Leo Harrison dismissed 83 batsmen, a record for the county. During the season Shackleton bowled more overs for the county than any bowler has ever done; sadly his great partnership with Vic Cannings ended when the latter accepted a coaching post at Eton College following his Benefit season.
Hampshire beat the reigning Champions Yorkshire at Bournemouth by just 28 runs when Heath bowled Wood in the final over – their first home victory against them since 1946. In the next match they beat Middlesex in the first-ever Championship match at Hornsey, scoring 190-8 in 40 overs.
Hampshire joined the new 2nd XI competition and DW White took four wickets in four balls against Gloucestershire 2nd XI at Southampton. The leading players included Danny Livingstone, Bernard Harrison, Bryan Timms, Alan Wassell and David White – under the captaincy of Arthur Holt.
The new indoor school opened at the County Ground during the winter of 1959/60. HS Altham was elected as President of the MCC.