From The Archive: Hampshire v Kent Spitfires

Kent are another side we have played T20s against in every year since the start in 2003. Our first meeting was at Beckenham and featured two Aussies.  Simon Katich with 59* helped us to 145-6 which in those days seemed a reasonable total, until Andrew Symons smashed 96* and took Kent to victory with eight overs to spare! In the following season at the Rose Bowl, another of our visitors from down-under, Shane Watson went one run better than Symonds and our 177-3 led to a 64-run victory (Mascarenhas 3-20). That took us to our first quarter-final, but we lost to Lancashire.

In 2005, Michael Carberry scored 56 – but for Kent in the final year before his move to Hampshire. Spinner Greg Lamb’s 4-28 and Nic Pothas 58* took as close but it was a single by Shaun Udal from the final ball that won it. In 2006 & 2007 we were still playing Kent just once in the season and in the first of those games, Kent recovered from 37-6 to win, while in 2007 we tied on 153 each (Rob Key 59, Mascarenhas 3-17). Then in 2008 we played home-and-away for the first time.

In 2008, Hampshire won easily after posting 197-6 at the Rose Bowl, which remained their highest total v Kent until last year at Beckenham when they passed 200 for the first time (207-6). In the (immediate) return fixture in 2008, Kent won by four wickets despite Carberry’s third consecutive T20 half-century. 2009 brought another away venue, Tunbridge Wells, where Kent’s 192-4 was too much for Hampshire, despite Lumb’s 59 in a three-innings sequence of 276 T20 runs. Kent won again in the return at the Rose Bowl but Hampshire were on top in two low-scoring matches in 2010. At Canterbury, Danny Briggs recorded the remarkable figures of 4-0-5-3, and Simon Jones on a rare appearance took 3-20. Later that year we won the trophy for the first time.

In 2011 Hampshire won a rain affected ‘Five5’ match, and then in a full-length encounter dismissed Kent for 72, the third lowest by any side against Hampshire. In 2012 Kent won a thriller by just three runs, mainly thanks to 46* by Sam Northeast, but we had our revenge in the next game winning by six wickets as Glenn Maxwell hit 66*; this helped our progress to a Cardiff Finals Day and out second T20 Trophy.

We won one each in 2013 with the outstanding performance Michael Carberry’s 83* at Canterbury where Dawson took 4-19; still Hampshire’s best figures v Kent. Carberry was at it again in 2014 with 73 in a winning score of 171-7 in a year when we did the double over Kent (Chris Wood 4-24). In 2015, we each won one high scoring game; in the second at Canterbury thanks mainly to 99* from James Vince, our highest in these contests. Kent’s winning 193-3 at Canterbury in 2016 was their highest v Hampshire, after we won the first fixture in a disappointing year, and again we won one each in 2017 on our way to another ultimately unsuccessful Finals Day. Our record in this fixture of 207-7 in 2018 was not enough to overtake Kent’s 210-4, while our 88 all out was our second lowest T20 score and lowest v Kent. Let’s hope for better in 2019.

Dave Allen