'el clasicoast' - A History

On the day which was scheduled to see the latest instalment of T20's oldest rivalry, Hampshire Cricket's historian Dave Allen takes a look back on the history of 'el clasicoast' between Hampshire and Sussex in the shortest form of the game

Since the competition began in 2003, the qualifying rounds of the T20 have been regionalised in different ways; as a consequence, we have met Sussex every year, often twice, while we have only played once against Derbyshire, Durham, Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, and Yorkshire, and there is one side we have never met: Leicestershire.

We have been scheduled to meet Sussex on 32 occasions, although five never started and the home match in 2012 was abandoned during the first innings; at present, we lead them with 15 wins against their eleven, and there have been some cracking games since we met on the first-ever T20 day in June 2003.

We have even won eight to their five at Hove and the first one was extraordinary as we won by three wickets with just one over to spare, despite chasing a winning total of only 68. This was after Dimi Mascarenhas took 5-14 including our first and only T20 hat-trick – and it remains Hampshire best bowling performance in any T20 innings. Chris Adams with 37* scored more than half the Sussex runs, while no one reached 20 for Hampshire, as James KIrtley took 2-8 in his four overs.

Dimi was to the fore again at the Rose Bowl in 2006 when his four wickets enabled us to defend 112-5, but the games have not always been low-scoring – in the following year Luke Wright’s 98 took Sussex to a winning 205-5, and in 2008 at Hove they posted one fewer but we got them from the final ball thanks mainly to Carberry’s half-century.

At the Rose Bowl in 2008 & 2009 both sides secured one victory by nine wickets, and in the first of those, Sussex got there in fewer than 10 overs, while Chris Liddle’s 4-17 are the best Sussex figures in this fixture, although England’s new ‘star’ Jofra Archer took 4-18 in the 2017 fixture, won easily by Sussex after Alsop’s 64 was more than 50% of Hampshire’s score. Back in 2011, a couple of promising youngsters, James Vince with 85* and Danny Briggs 4-17, took us to victory by 112 runs at Hove. Around those years, with Hampshire champions in 2010 & 2012, Neil McKenzie was one of our most consistent batsmen, but no one has ever reached three figures for Hampshire in this fixture – James Vince’s 90* at Hove in 2015 is the highest. For Sussex, at the The Ageas Bowl in 2014, Luke Wright added 116* to that previous 98, and that is the highest score against Hampshire by any batsman for any side.

Hampshire have twice passed 200 against Sussex, both at Hove, in 2008 & 2015, while Sussex have reached 200 on four occasions in 2007, 2008, 2012 & 2015.

Despite our overall record against Sussex we have not managed a victory since the first match in 2017, since when Sussex have won three and two have been abandoned.