“The Cradle of Cricket”

Although it's Hambledon's overseas signing Matt De Villiers who is making the headlines (571 runs in 7 matches, averaging 114.2, with two centuries and a top score of 168), it's shaping up to be a great batting year across the board, both individually (four other players have already exceeded 300 runs) and as teams. Last week's 398 at Hartley Wintney was a massive total, whatever the size of the ground; but the 1st XI have yet to post under 250 when batting first, and the 2nd XI are also regularly posting extremely competitive scores. All of which has helped both teams maintain an unbeaten record and sit at the top of their respective leagues.

Before we even reach the mid-point of the season, seven Hambledon players have notched up 8 league centuries between them. Going back through the website records (which go back as far as 2009), the previous record was 2011, when 8 centuries were scored in the entire season...

Let's hope the Dons batters can continue the run of form and add many more centuries to the 2022 total!

Broadhalfpenny Down, the home of the Hambledon Club, was the location of the inaugural First-Class match in June 1772 between Hampshire and an All-England team and the famed ground will be hosting two celebratory matches this June to mark the 250th anniversary of that first ever match.

Senior and Under 17 Training sessions start this Wednesday 6 April at the Ridge, and will begin at 5:30pm (since it still starts to get dark relatively early...).

Let's see a good turn-out – please try to be there on time, or as soon after 5:30 as possible!

This year’s pre-season working party will be this coming Sunday, 27 March, starting at 10am. It looks like it won’t even be raining!

One of the jobs this year is to fit the new netting over the net lanes; so would be useful to have a few standalone stepladders - if you have one, please bring it along...

As always, the more volunteers turn up, the quicker it will all be done, but we should all be done by noon, so please come and lend a hand if you can!

It is with great sadness we report the recent death of Bill Enstone who represented the Hambledon club for over 35 years as a player, umpire and Club treasurer. Bill was a great team player, bowling his leg-spin and batting in the lower order. After hanging up his boots he became the Club umpire for numerous years and then moved onto the committee as the Club treasurer.

His funeral will be at the Sustainability Centre burial site on Tuesday 8th February at 11am, with the wake at the Hogs Lodge.