My Favourite Game

Martin Chandler | 8:50am BST 30 August 2026

Published: 2026
Pages: 373
Author: Winter, John (Editor)
Publisher: Hampshire Cricket Heritage
Rating: 3.5 stars

It’s been done before of course, a number of writers/contributors choose a favourite game of cricket and an editor puts together a book, hasn’t it?

It does seem obvious, but it still took me a few minutes to come up with any titles on this sort of theme, and even when I did so none of those that sprung to mind are much like this one, the latest book from Hampshire Cricket Heritage.

The key to the success of this one is the contributors. There are 75 matches featured and 81 contributors altogether, 39 of whom have played for the county, and the other 42 have loyally supported Hampshire down the years. The format is not always the same. Some of those involved have contributed an essay on their chosen game, and for others the vehicle for their memories is an interview from editor John Winter and, as the arithmetically inclined will have realised, just a few of the games feature two contributors.

The earliest match chosen dates all the way back to 1953 when supporter Rob Cooper, then aged 9, was taken to watch the county play against that summer’s Australians and saw Neil Harvey score a century. His description is perhaps more about the experience than the match itself, unlike the game that follows, the only other one from the 1950s.

In the 21st century the name of Dennis Baldry will strike a chord with few outside Hampshire or his previous county, Middlesex, but he made the highest score of his career, 151, against Glamorgan on his Hampshire debut at the start of the 1959 season. Before the end of May he’d made another century (he only ever made three) and also taken his career best bowling figures of 7-76, but the promise went unfulfilled, leaving just the memories he shared with Winter.

It may be partly due to the demographic of those who have the time to contribute to this sort of project, or it may just be the genius of the man, but the name of Barry Richards crops up time after time, and the 1970s produce more of the games featured than any other decade. Having had the pleasure once myself of interviewing Richards, a most affable and patient subject, it must have been a huge thrill for John Winter to spend some quality time with such a legend.

It would have been interesting to know what choices Gordon Greenidge and Andy Roberts might have made, and what they would have said about their time with Hampshire, but that minor disappointment aside this is a thoroughly enjoyable concept and very well done. Full scorecards appear for all the matches featured, some of which are limited overs contests, and there are plenty of illustrations.

Hampshire became a First Class county back in 1864, so there is the best part of a century that this book cannot cover for the simple reason that there is no one left alive who can recall much further back than the Coronation Year match watched by Rob Cooper. But despite that limitation the book does close with accounts of three more significant matches in Hampshire’s history. These take the form of conversations between Winter and county historian David Allen.

As soon as I was aware there was such a feature in the book I confidently expected to see that remarkable game against Warwickshire in 1922 get a mention, the occasion when Hampshire were bowled out for 15 and followed on, coming back so strongly they eventually won by 155 runs. In fact that one is included but, essentially to the effect only that it hadn’t been chosen because there is already a book devoted to that single game.

Two of the other three that do make the cut are ones I had expected. I did know that Hampshire had beaten the 1912 Australians, but that was the limit of my knowledge so I enjoyed reading about the match in detail for the first time, and a comfortable win it was too, by eight wickets. As a Lancastrian there is always a degree of pleasure to be gained from an innings defeat for Yorkshire, and Hampshire did just that in 1920 and to make the win all the more remarkable it was achieved at Headingley.

The third of the outliers is more of a surprise in that it is relatively recent (1963) and because Hampshire lost but it was a hugely significant game nonetheless, Hampshire’s first ever List A game, in the 1963 Gillette Cup against Derbyshire.

For Hampshire supporters this one must be as close to a ‘must have’ title as has appeared in many years, and beyond that it will appeal to all of the many who enjoy the county game and particularly the County Championship. It is a book of which I am sure John Arlott would have approved, and I can’t help but wonder what his selection might have been.