Hampshire Cricket Pays Tribute To Malcolm Heath

Hampshire Cricket would like to express their great sadness at the passing of former bowler, Malcolm Heath, aged 85.

In late August 1949, aged just 15, promising pace bowler Malcolm Heath played his first Minor Counties Championship match for Hampshire 2nd XI v Wiltshire. His team were so dominant that he did not bowl, but in the following season he played more frequently, and his first wicket was the future Gloucestershire captain, Derrick Bailey.

The arrival of Malcolm Heath gave Hampshire the edge of pace and lift which other counties enjoyed – although Heath was always the nicest of men; a ‘gentle giant’. He continued to play for the 2nd XI until making his first-class debut age 20, at Leicester in August 1954 and he finished that first season with 17 wickets at 15.41.

1955 was the marvellous year in which just 13 men, plus Ingleby-Mackenzie in one match, took Hampshire to third place for the first time, and Heath was one of the six local ‘graduates’, all of whom would be there when they went one better in 1958 and then won the title in 1961. Heath contributed 33 wickets at 20.45, and his record was similar in 1956, after which came his best years.

In 1957, he took 76 wickets (67 in the County Championship) and won his county cap. Then came the wet summer of 1958; Hampshire’s and Heath’s finest. He was replacing Vic Cannings as Shackleton’s opening partner by now, and took 126 wickets at an average of 16.42.In that year, he took 6-53 v Gloucestershire at Bristol, 13-86 v Sussex at Portsmouth in the match, including his career best 8-43, and then in the extraordinary game at Burton-on Trent, he and Shackleton bowled unchanged, with Heath’s match figures 13-87. Improbable as it sounds, Hampshire lost by 103 runs, and that probably consigned them to second place rather than the title.

1959 was the season of endless sun, covered wickets and the arrival of the fast, and more aggressive ‘Butch’ White, and Heath’s return of 71 wickets cost more than double his average of 1958. From this point, he was generally selected as first-change, and often came in on the hard Portsmouth wickets, while the spinners played at Bournemouth and elsewhere.

Still for the next two seasons he averaged in the mid-20s and his 54 Championship wickets certainly contributed to the first title in 1961. On 22 August, he took 3-42 in an important victory v Leicestershire at Portsmouth, but the left-arm spinner Wassell played in the final three matches, including the historic meeting v Derbyshire at Bournemouth. Heath was less successful in 1962 and struggling with a hip injury, his career ended at the age of just 28.

He took 527 first-class wickets for Hampshire at an average of 25.11 and he is 18th in the list of the county's all-time wicket-takers. His batting was rather more modest – he was a genuine number 11, scoring 569 runs at 5.86 and a best of 33 v Sussex in 1955, although towards the end of the 1961 season, he enjoyed hitting 28 against the Australians at Southampton.

In later years, he coached at Lord’s and played for MCC, whilst Heath also coached at St Paul's School at Barnes for 10 years.