On This Day: Brigadier General Robert Poore Scores Triple Century At Taunton

Hampshire Cricket's historian Dave Allen takes a look back on timely memorable moments in his ‘On This Day’ series.

Hampshire (672-7 & 65-4) v Somerset (315 & 206) , Championship, Taunton: 20-22 July 1899

This was the third and final day of the Championship match which Hampshire won by an innings and 151 runs – at the time, their second highest victory in a Championship match.

On the first day, Somerset posted 315 and Hampshire were struggling on 65-4 with Brigadier General RM Poore 24*, accompanied by nightwatchman Tom Soar. As a serving officer in South Africa, Poore – born in Dublin – had oddly played in three Test Matches for South Africa against England in 1895/6. He played for Hampshire from 1898-1906, although as a professional soldier he was not regularly available.

In 1899 however, between 12 June (his first match of the season) and 12 August, he enjoyed a two-month period as remarkable as any ever experienced by a Hampshire player. In that time, he played in nine Championship matches and scored 1,399 runs at 116.6, with seven centuries (then a Hampshire record for a season).

Those runs included an innings of 304 on the second day of the match at Taunton, then the highest first-class score for Hampshire. The day started with Poore and Soar (95) carrying the total to 258 when the captain EG (‘Teddy’) Wynyard – another Army officer - came to the wicket, and he and Poore added 411 for the sixth wicket, which is still a county record. Wynyard, who played three Tests for England scored two county double centuries, the first 268 at Southampton against the powerful Yorkshire side of 1896, plus 225 at Taunton.

Hampshire declared at 672-7, while Somerset used seven bowlers, Edwin Tyler taking four wickets but conceding 201 runs. The Somerset wicketkeeper Arcdale Wickham did not concede one bye in the total, which remained Hampshire’s record for 106 years and is still second best. Hampshire declared overnight and dismissed Somerset for 206, with Harry Baldwin taking 4-53; Hampshire finished the season in 10^th (of 15).

After this year, Poore served in the South African (Boer) Wars and would play only 14 more matches for Hampshire from 1902-1906, but his performances in 1899 led to him being named as one of Wisden’s Cricketers of the Year.