canvassed for their views about the captaincy of Bill Murray-Wood. As the second game – a defeat by Middlesex – drew to a close the committee issued a statement saying Murray-Wood was to be relieved of his post. Doug Wright was appointed as the county’s first professional captain until Colin Cowdrey took over in 1957, with Ames as manager. Wright celebrated his first season of leadership in 1954 with match figures of 12-120 – eight for 37 in the second innings – as Kent won the Whitsun game by 18 runs. The die was now cast for a series of close-run things in the Hampshire-Kent series. Wright and Ted Witherden saved the 1955 match at Southampton with a stubborn eight-wicket partnership when all seemed lost; Cannings took the final Kent wicket with the last possible ball at Canterbury in August, when Cowdrey, opening at the request of the Test selectors, made 45 and 67, and there was an exciting finish to the August match in 1956. Kent chased 146 in 105 minutes; needing six off the last ball with one wicket remaining Ridgway’s attempt at a big hit brought only two. In 1958 Hampshire surprised even their most ardent supporters by mounting a serious challenge for the title under the inspiring captaincy of Colin Ingleby-Mackenzie. On Whit Tuesday that year Cowdrey set Hampshire 305 in four and a half hours. Their West Indian opener Roy Marshall, one of the most attractive batsmen in the country, rose to the challenge and shared a second-wicket partnership of 207 with Ingleby-Mackenzie after an opening stand of 75 with David Blake. Marshall made 131; Ingleby-Mackenzie reached three figures in 98 minutes and Hampshire – 148 behind on the first innings - won by five wickets with half-an-hour to spare. Then to August, with Hampshire, 156 points from 19 matches, leading the Championship from Northamptonshire 140 from 20 and Surrey 134 from 19. John Arlott painted a vivid picture, the marquees of I Zingari, the Old Stagers, the Buffs, the Band of Brothers, The Men of Kent and Kentish Men, the Mayor of Canterbury and the East Kent Yeomanry pitched in the same place every year. “Round the ground, motor cars, ranked along the sloping banks give their occupants a view of the game from beneath their own travelling roofs at a price not unreasonable for such a luxury.” The Canterbury hotels had been booked up for The Week months ahead, yet Arlott understood that for some years past there had been suggestions that Kent should find more exciting opponents than Hampshire for their most attractive date of the summer. ACS member David Harvey, with boyhood memories of Canterbury Week from the late 1930s, has similar recollections. “In those days Hampshire were not a particularly exciting team and there was sometimes a feeling of ‘not Hampshire again’ although Gloucestershire and Somerset had been our Bank Holiday opponents only a few years earlier. We would have welcomed some variety, with more attractive opponents, both before and just after the war.” Ingleby-Mackenzie declared at 378 for seven on the Saturday and on August Bank Holiday Monday 15,000 turned up, much to the delight of Ridgway who was the latest Kent professional to choose this fixture for his benefit. They saw Shackleton (seven for 71 unchanged from the Nackington Road end) bowl Kent into following on but they fared better thanks to 127 from the left-handed Bob Wilson. Hampshire needed 80 to win in 97 minutes but they lost six wickets for 48 to Ridgway and Dave Halfyard before Mike Barnard and Leo Harrison got them home. Northamptonshire lost to Leicestershire and, by defeating Nottinghamshire, Surrey moved into second place, 22 points behind Hampshire. The positions were to reverse in the final table. Hampshire v Kent 155