Apart from five matches with no results we have played Middlesex 34 times, winning 20 and losing 14. A list of away matches covers no fewer than six grounds, with Radlett, for the second time on Tuesday; the others were Lord's, Uxbridge, Richmond, Southgate and Merchant Taylor’s School. We have played Sussex every year starting with our first-ever T20 match in 2003 at the Rose Bowl, and our overall record is Won 15; Lost 11 with one that started with No Result, and five Abandoned with no play. From yesterday’s Daily Telegraph: “The constant tinkering with County Championship regulations will continue next year”. They predict firstly that from two last year the number of matches played with the Kookaburra ball will be doubled to four. In terms of legacy and achievement the other member of the ‘class of ’68’ is one of the very best batsman to have played the game. Barry Richards thrilled county crowds for a decade. There are two books that concern the life of the great man, The Barry Richards Story, that appeared in 1978, and a biography by Murtagh in 2015, Sundial in the Shade. He is also the subject of a recent monograph from Michael Sexton, The Summer of Barry, that looks at his record breaking season with South Australia in 1970/71. It was potentially a harder week because we wouldn't have Keith [Barker] in the side and there was a lot of talk about having to bowl a few more overs.

Then in 1976 the tourists – West Indies – were the first to field Hampshire players against the home team, with Andy Roberts having a brief bowl but Gordon Greenidge top-scoring with 84. A more permanent mark in the record books was made by Phil Mead, who began a career that lasted for more than thirty years in 1905. A prodigious run scorer throughout his career Mead was also, in the early years, a far from negligible slow left arm bowler. He was, finally, the subject of a biography, CP Mead, by Neil Jenkinson, a book published in 1992. Then in late May 2019 came the new ground’s great event with Hampshire’s four-day Championship match against Nottinghamshire, moved from the Ageas Bowl to accommodate the World Cup which also deprived Hampshire of James Vince and Liam Dawson. Despite this, Hampshire gave a fine performance against Stuart Broad and his team-mates winning by 244 runs on the fourth day with time to spare. In the modern game of 12-month contracts and opportunities to earn money in various limited-overs competitions around the world, benefits have become far less significant and the cap is now a recognition for good performances, usually presented on the field and awarded recently to bowlers Chris Wood, and Fidel Edwards - all our capped players can be identified by a small blue dot alongside their names on the Players’ Board on the Atrium walkway.Then in the early years of this century Brian Gardner set about creating a ground of first-class standard on the island and since 2009, Newclose has hosted many interesting matches. In one of the first, a young local prospect Danny Briggs appeared in an island side that lost to Derbyshire and later that year Mike Gatting came to officially open the ground followed by a match between Brian Gardner’s XI and MCC. Shaun ‘Shaggy’ Udal was an off spinner and an interesting character who, very late in his career, won four Test caps against India and Pakistan. Udal’s autobiography, My Turn To Spin, appeared in 2007, coinciding with his retirement.

No apologies for a recycled title – after seven years my initial publication is seriously out-of-date)Leaving, perhaps, the best until last brings me to the Barbadian fast bowler Malcolm Marshall. During his fourteen years with Hampshire, in 1987, Marshall’s autobiography, Marshall Arts, appeared. In 2000, following Marshall’s untimely death, his collaborator in that book, Pat Symes, updated and republished the book as Maco: The Malcolm Marshall Story. Fletcha Middleton, who has opened throughout the season, only made eight before Sam Cook stung his pads. The most surprising statistic is that of the 44 other matches 22 were won batting first and 22 batting second. The toss did not help with only 16 toss winners going on to win the game, although the captains seemed to improve – they won just four of the first 20 matches having won the toss but won seven of the final eight. The other figures (rounded up or down): Long time Hampshire captain and now accomplished broadcaster Mark Nicholas published his autobiography in 2016. A Beautiful Game is one of the best of the genre. Of his charges three have been the subject of books, Robin Smith, Sean Udal and Hampshire’s second Marshall, Malcolm. In the days of Northlands Road, it also meant receiving a capped-players tie, and using the top players dressing room, to which young uncapped players had access only if they were playing in a first team match.