- In First-Class cricket
- At Scarborough
- 1969-2018
Surrey have been very infrequent visitors to Scarborough – they have played in only six Championship matches there – and Paul Dyson look back at the first North Marine competitive game between these two great rivals. The photo of John Hampshire appears by courtesy of Mick Pope.
August 20, 21, 22, 1969, Scarborough: Surrey 179 (GRJ Roope 78*, RA Hutton 4-32) & 218 (Younis Ahmed 94); Yorkshire 210 (RA Hutton 66, JH Hampshire 63) & 158 (DEV Padgett 53, PI Pocock 4-55). Surrey won by 29 runs.
Yorkshire came into the 1969 season on the back of having won seven Championship titles in ten seasons, the last three in consecutive years, but had lost three key players at the end of that sequence and their current experience was proving to be quite different. Although they had lost only three of their 18 matches played so far, a surfeit of draws meant that they had won only two. Surrey had also drawn a goodly number of matches even though it was not a particularly wet summer but had won four games and lost none.
Despite Yorkshire having played at this famous venue since 1874 this was Surrey’s first-ever visit, other than for a festival match in the 19th century, and meant that they had now played away matches against their hosts on ten different grounds. The game itself reached an exciting conclusion with the visitors snatching victory after the home side had looked to be in a comfortable position.
Mike Edwards and Roger Knight gave Surrey a good start with an opening partnership of 60 before both were lbw to Richard Hutton. Sadly, rain interrupted play six times on the first day and the innings then lost its momentum. Graham Roope, who eventually finished on 78 not out, tried to hold the latter part of the innings together but he duly ran out of partners as the innings fizzled out. Hutton, who took the tenth wicket, finished with four for 32. The all-rounder was soon in action again, this time with the bat coming in at number three when 37 runs were on the board. By the time that the total had reached 52 he had lost two of his partners but then found a willing ally in John Hampshire and the pair steered their team to 77 for three by close of play.
At the start of the second day the overnight batsmen played in a positive manner and took their fourth-wicket stand to 93 made in only 85 minutes. Hutton was dismissed for 66 and Hampshire for 63. As with the Surrey innings the rest was an anti-climax as the last seven wickets went down for only 65 runs – Intikhab Alam’s leg-spin being influential in the early part of this, him taking three wickets – although the all-out total gave Yorkshire a lead of 31. Bob Willis, in his first season, also took three wickets. Surrey’s second innings was dominated by Younis Ahmed; wickets were falling regularly and the visitors had slipped to 170 for six by stumps, the Pakistani batsman having made 70 not out.
Younis had eventually found a willing partner in wicket-keeper Arnold Long and by time the final day began their stand was already worth 35. This soon became the highest partnership of the innings – one of 66 – but the last four wickets fell for only 17 runs, Younis being dismissed six short of a century, and this left Yorkshire with a comfortable-looking target of 188 in 250 minutes. Opening bowlers Chris Old and Tony Nicholson had each taken three wickets. Another useful innings from Hutton (35) and 53 from Doug Padgett took Yorkshire to 114 for two and the home side were then looking to be the favourites. Surrey’s spinners then set to work and, in the game’s most dramatic collapse, eight wickets went down for 44 runs as Yorkshire’s batting completely fell apart. Intikhab again started the rot with three quick middle-order wickets and Pocock took the final three, finishing with four for 55 and the White Rose county had fallen 30 runs short of its target.
Yorkshire did not win any of its last six matches and finished in 13th place – at the time the lowest in their history. Surrey gained three more victories and finished in third place behind Glamorgan, who won the title for the second time, and Gloucestershire.
Man of the Match
There was a fine all-round performance from Richard Hutton but he has been profiled in this series previously so attention turns to John Hampshire. He spent a lifetime in cricket as player, captain, coach, umpire and – not long before the end of his life – as President of Yorkshire CCC. Born about 300 yards from this writer’s birthplace in Thurnscoe, the family moved to nearby Rotherham when Hampshire was a child so that his father, who played for Yorkshire in 1937, could follow his career as a policeman.
Experience with Rotherham Town brought Hampshire’s name to the attention of Yorkshire and he made his debut for the 2nd XI in 1959, graduating to the first team two years later. He became a regular in 1963, firstly as an opening batsman but later settling in the middle order, usually at number four. A very powerful striker, he had very strong forearms and shoulders and his hooking and pulling were very effective but he also drove pleasingly on both sides of the wicket and was always a good batsman to watch. After that first season he was awarded his county cap.
Hampshire first played in Test cricket in 1969 when he made a century against West Indies at Lord’s – the first to do so on debut at the historic ground. Dropped after his second game, he never gained a regular place in the England side and his total of eight Tests came in five different series but he did play in the final two games of the Ashes-winning series in Australia in 1970/71.
When Yorkshire won four Championships and two Gillette Cups in the 1963-69 period Hampshire was one of their most important players. Things changed rapidly at the end of the decade, though, and he suddenly found himself as a senior player under the captaincy of Geoff Boycott in 1971. It was the start of 15 years of unrest for the Club but he was awarded a benefit in 1976 and in scoring 1,596 runs for Yorkshire in first-class cricket two years later he corfirmed his value to the side and had his best-ever season. Unfortunately that year is remembered more for when he deliberately batted slowly at Northampton in protest to his skipper’s similar tactics. The committee’s reaction was to criticise him and, in the autumn, sack Boycott and promote him to the captaincy.
However, because of the in-fighting, the return of Ray Illingworth as coach and Boycott’s resentment, the honour came more in the shape of a poisoned chalice. Hampshire led the side for two seasons, the county finishing in the top seven of the Championship in each and reaching two semi-finals. He returned to the ranks for the 1981 campaign but then moved to Derbyshire with whom his three years saw the end of his playing career.
During the late 1960s Hampshire had spent some winters in Tasmania as player but later became the island’s coach and was important in its development as a state which could eventually participate in the Sheffield Shield. He also coached in Zimbabwe but later became a first-class umpire and fulfilled this role for 21 years, his experience including standing in 21 Test matches and 20 ODIs. For four years he was a member of the ICC’s panel of international umpires.
