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Kedrun Laurie recently contacted us from France to donate her father's autograph book which has cricketers' signatures collected back in 1936 and 1937. Kedrun's father Ian was eleven years old in 1936 and living in Bournemouth. The book contains autographs from former players representing Hampshire, Middlesex, Surrey, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Notts, Northants, India and New Zealand. We are extremely grateful to the Laurie family for this wonderful donation which certainly adds to our extensive collection of autographs in the Archive Room. There are so many famous names amongst them, including Phil Mead's on the left-hand photo below and Herbert Sutcliffe's on the Yorkshire page on the photo on the right. HCH's Dave Allen and Ray Stubbington are now busy identifying as many autographs as possible in this delightful book, in order to catalogue them for our collection.
Lawrence Coleman has very kindly donated two framed pictures this month on behalf of the estate of Dudley Carpenter. They are a limited edition print by Terry Harrison of May's Bounty and a print of Lord's by Arthur Weaver, commemorating the Centenary Test Match between England and Australia in 1980 and dedicated to the batsmen who have scored over 7,000 runs in Test Cricket. It is signed by 14 players. Both pictures are new to our collection. Our sincere thanks to HCH Supporter Lawrence for this wonderful donation.
More supporters than ever are giving us donations of books for us to re-sell at the two Book Sales we hold in the Club Shop each year. Our sincere thanks to one and all who have again donated in recent weeks.
We are always delighted when one of our own HCH Directors has another clear out at home and parts with another valued piece of their own Hampshire Cricket related collection to enhance the bigger HCH Collection in our Archive Room. Dave Allen is always dropping off more of his own "treasures" for Glen and Ray, our Archive Room Curators, to find the best place to display or file away in the Archive Room. Dave has donated a number of Arlott books recently and his second edition of Padwick's A Bibliography of Cricket now resides in our Collection. This month, regular donor, David Ackland, also passed over the whole of his own scorecard collection, as well as some superb scrapbooks covering each Hampshire season from 1967 to 1971. These complement our fine collection of scrapbooks dating back to the early 1960's. John Winter will look to feature the 1969 season, using David's scrapbook for that year, in the coming months in his monthly 2025 Season Journal. This can be found under the Memories Tab at the top of this screen. David's favourite game is also from the 1969 season and appears as number 18 in the My Favourite Game Series on this site again under the Memories Tab.
We were delighted when Nigel Roberts contacted us here at HCH to donate this Philip Mead Stand sign from the old Northlands Road ground. It came together with a tile from the Pavilion Roof and both now take their place proudly in the Archive Room Collection in the Shane Warne Stand. The right hand picture below shows Chris Smith warming up in front of the Philip Mead Stand, with the sign clearly visible back then.
We were pleased to receive a significant number of Hampshire Handbooks, dating right back to 1953, from the Potter family in Basingstoke. When Glen drove up to take receipt of these on behalf of HCH, he paid an early Spring visit to May's Bounty which brought back many happy memories. Our sincere thanks to Sarah for contacting us and making this donation on behalf of her family. Sarah wrote to us about how her father, Philip, who very sadly passed away in September, was a lifelong member of Hampshire Cricket and devoted supporter.
We were delighted that Hampshire's Tim Tremlett was able to hand over to HCH a number of books and pictures (including the one here shown with autographs of former players) which have been donated by the Price family.
October 2024
Imagine how pleased we were to receive the following e-mail here at HCH in September 2024
Mark Butler and his family have lived for 7 generations in Hambledon, until the house was sold in 2022. One of the more valuable artefacts in the house was a screen with a lot of old scorecards, including one when Hambledon defeated the rest of England in 1777, thanks to the skills of the likes of John Small and Richard Nyren. His family has been very concerned that such an important part of cricket’s history should never be lost, particularly as at is still in such good condition. The screen was housed at Lord's for some time (back in the 90’s), but the then new curator had different plans, so it was returned to their Hambledon home. Their thought has always been that it remains part of Hampshire history, and Mark therefore contacted Hampshire Cricket Heritage via e-mail last month for us to take custody of it. Not only has the Butler family very kindly donated it to HCH, Mark even dropped it off with us at the Utilita Bowl - see picture of Mark above. We can't say thank you enough for the culture of giving that now exists towards Hampshire Cricket Heritage and we are only too delighted to take receipt of this unique screen from the extremely generous Butler family. They have also provided information on the screen for us to publish on our Website. Aidan Haile's researches, as reported in Ian Maun's From Commons to Lord's, have turned up a number of articles, letters and references to the scorecards, which pre-date Ashley-Cooper and show that the scorecards are well-known, though they now seem to have been forgotten. They are as follows:
The eighteenth-century collection of printed scorecards, pasted on a large screen and now in the possession of HCH (having been donated by the Butler family of Hambledon), is certainly one of the most interesting artifacts known to enthusiasts of the period. In 1878, Fred Gale, the ‘Old Buffer’, wrote to the owner of Baily’s Magazine a letter concerning Hambledon, entitled ‘The Cradle of Cricket’. In this missive, he mentions ‘the cricket screen, which has been seventy or eighty years in the possession of the family of Colonel Butler, of Hambledon. I saw in his dining room a screen with the original scores of the Old Hambledon, commencing in 1787, printed on paper as our scores are not on card; most of the matches being headed, ‘Grand Match, 1000 guineas a-side.’ It was while passing through Southsea that Gale had heard of the screen from ‘a gentleman’. This article was reproduced in the Hampshire Independent and the Hampshire Advertiser in 1878.
Canon William Benham, a native of West Meon, wrote in a letter to a magazine in 1890, ‘within a walk of Hambledon, the head-quarters of the first great cricket club of England.’ He stated: ‘One of the old Hambledon players had a big screen on which had pasted all of the scores of the matches played by the club. I once told Frederick Lillywhite of him, when he was gathering his great list of cricket scores, and he went off at once to Hambledon. I knew not whether he succeeded in getting them from him.’ This is not entirely factually correct, as not all the matches played by the Club are on the screen, and many played by other sides are also listed.
In 1893, R.S. Holmes, discussing printed score-cards in the magazine Cricket, states: ‘Cricket scores were printed on cards and paper (but not sold on cricket grounds, probably because few persons could read then, over 100 years ago.) They may be seen on a screen in the dining-room of Colonel Butler’s house at Hambledon.’ In 1895, Holmes, in Cricket, again writes: ‘When was the score card first issued? In the last century scores were printed on thin sheets of paper at the close of each day’s play, I believe. Witness that famous screen in the possession of Colonel Butler, of Hambledon, which is covered with the original scores of the matches of the Hambledon Club from the year 1777 down to the break-up of the Club in 1788, when it was absorbed into the Hampshire County.’
As for the screen itself, Ian Maun adds that "the careful positioning of the score-cards within painted frames of ‘beading’ show that the screen may have been designed/made to accommodate cards of a given dimension. Ashley-Cooper states that the screen originally came from Whitedale, a house close by Windmill Down. This was at one time owned by John Richards, treasurer to the Hambledon Club. Regarding the origin of the cards themselves and the story of their printing is unknown. Aidan Haile's researches, as revealed in "From Commons to Lord's" by Ian Maun, suggests that their origin may lie with the Earl of Winchilsea. The earliest score-card in the collection (June 30th, 1785) is also the earliest known of a match in which Winchilsea played."
June 2024
The most recent addition to our Hampshire Cap Collection is a very special one. It is the County Cap awarded to Sam Pothecary in 1927. Glen Williams has been in person to collect it in June 2024 from the Pothecary family, after they contacted HCH with the express wish of donating it to the Archive Collection. Sam's son and daughter have very kindly donated Sam's cap awarded in 1927 for a player who represented his native county in 271 matches across a 20 year career with the club. He made nine centuries, including a career-best 130, amassing 9,477 runs. Bowling slow-left-arm, he also took 52 wickets with a best of 4-47. Aged 40, he managed three Championship matches in the season after the end of the Second World War, before then working as a groundsman, coach and umpire in the professional game right up until 1975. His cap is now very much a prized possession in our collection.
March 2024