Born On This Day: 11th November

Henry Holmes, born in Romsey in 1833, was a medium pace round-arm bowler, useful batsman and occasional wicketkeeper who played for Hampshire before the formation of the County Cricket Club, and then in 27 of their first 28 first-class matches from 1864-1878, he also appeared in five matches for five other first-class sides.

His appearances included Hampshire County Cricket Club’s inaugural first-class match in July 1864 v Sussex at the Antelope Ground and in his publication about that game Alan Edwards (2014) described Holmes as “one of the unsung heroes of Hampshire cricket”, despite a relatively modest career record.

For the county club, he scored 692 runs at 15.04 and took 22 wickets at 22.90, but Edwards describes him as a “cricketer of considerable ability”, including being an accomplished and versatile fielder.

He had played for Wiltshire, and was professional at the Southampton Union Club, the East Hants Club in Southsea, then the South Hants Club in the mid-1860s, but circumstances determined that he was in his thirties when the match v Sussex took place – he took two wickets in a 10-wicket defeat.

In the return later that season, he made his highest score for the county, 71, and took part in Hampshire’s first century partnership, while in 1876 he took 5-57, his best bowling, at Derby.

In 1877, Holmes began another phase of his cricketing life as a first-class umpire, which continued until he was 65 in 1899 – he stood in the match when Yorkshire’s openers set the first wicket world record of 554 at Chesterfield in 1898, by which time he had also been Hampshire’s groundsman.

In later years, he played cricket at the Totton Club, but he was also involved in some rather odd ‘incidents’; Edwards, suggests he was “independent (and) … sometimes pig-headed”. He died in Southampton on 6.1.1913.

Also today: Nathan Rimmington