Lives in Cricket No 26 - HV Hesketh-Prichard

37 Hampshire had been part of the formal County Championship and had first-class status only since 1895. Money was always tight, with the report to the Annual General Meeting of 1897 saying that ‘the past year has been a depressing one’ . Various fund-raising methods were attempted, with amateur theatricals in Bournemouth or Southampton in aid of the club’s finances an almost annual event. In 1899 the batting had been adequate or better, with the annus mirabilis of Major R.M.Poore. Poore, on leave, had played cricket in India and South Africa, and claimed to have learned to bat from the Badminton Book of Cricket . In 1899 he played 21 innings and averaged 91.23, easily topping the first-class averages; for Hampshire he scored 1,399 at 116.58. Teddy Wynyard had averaged over 40 as well, and against Somerset at Taunton the pair had added 411 for the sixth wicket (Poore 304, Wynyard 225). This must not have been entirely stress-free, as Poore told his wife that Wynyard was ‘an impossible man to deal with’. 21 It is still the fourth-highest sixth- wicket partnership ever, and remains the County Championship record. Despite this, in 1899 the county had won only four matches and lost eight, finishing equal tenth in the Championship. It can be seen, then, that the batting depended heavily on the availability of soldiers – Aldershot was a boon for Hampshire – and the bowling had been poor, with seventeen bowlers tried during the year: and it heavily depended on two solid professionals. Harry Baldwin bowled off spin and had made his debut for the county in 1877, and was to play until 1905. He was the main wicket-taker in 1899 with 78, but they cost him 27 runs each. He was, by this time, 39 years old. The other was Tom Soar, employed as the groundsman at Southampton, who bowled right-arm fast (or fastish) and had played for the county since 1888. He took 33 wickets at 25 in 1899, but rheumatism had kept him out of the side in August. There were occasional bursts from Christopher Heseltine, another soldier and an amateur fast bowler, though his cricketing background was less than distinguished as he had not made the eleven at Eton nor won his blue at Cambridge: but once again he was an irregular. The rest of the bowling was nondescript at best. The county had performed well against the Australians in August 1899, but the match was dominated by Charles Llewellyn, who had come from South Africa to qualify for the county, but would not be available for Championship games until 1901. One might note that Llewellyn was not paid by the club at all until November 1900, when he was officially taken on as a professional at £3 3s 0d (£3.15) a week. As a result, he was shown in the 1899 match as an amateur. So there was good reason in 1900 to recruit anyone who might have been useful. In fact in 1900 duty in the Boer War took away the better part of the batting, including Poore and Wynyard and several other soldiers, with disastrous results. By the time Hex made his debut the county had played two games – against Surrey and Lancashire – and lost them both heavily. 21 Jeremy Lonsdale, The Army’s Grace , Spellmount, 1992. Portsmouth and Patagonia