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Henry HORTON

There is a clue in the name; the double H alliteration may seem a little ‘fancy’ but Henry Horton is it – no need for any extra name(s) and with only one initial, little prospect of Henry (even sometimes ‘H’) captaining Hampshire. But Henry Horton from Hereford did come to serve his adopted county wonderfully well over a decade in which they went from being a ‘shire’ county with modest ambitions to one of the finest sides in England. And Henry [pictured, right, walking out with Jimmy Gray at Portsmouth] achieved this mostly after his 30th birthday, having turned his back on first-class cricket previously in 1949, following four unsuccessful seasons with Worcestershire alongside older brother Joe (simply Joseph) Horton.

These were the days when young men were able to play football in the winter and cricket in the summer, so Henry, a very solid defender, moved after four years from Blackburn Rovers to Southampton where he played 75 times between 1951-53. His transfer fee of £10,000 was a Rovers record at the time. In Southampton, Hampshire’s coach Arthur Holt, himself an ex-‘Saint’, persuaded Henry to return to the summer game and after one last league season with Bradford Park Avenue, Henry established himself in the Hampshire side in 1955 and won his county cap.

He picked a good year. The weather was fine, Barbadian Roy Marshall came into Hampshire’s team to open with Jimmy Gray and Henry soon became the regular man when one of them was dismissed. They were as good a permanent top three as Hampshire ever had and in three seasons their runs took Hampshire to their highest ever positions – third in 1955, second in 1958 and Champions in 1961.

Henry scored his first first-class century in 1955 at the age of 32 and also completed 1,000 runs that season for the first time – a feat he was to repeat over the next eleven consecutive seasons. From 1959-1961 he passed 2,000 runs and his 1959 total of 2,428 has been bettered only by Phil Mead and Roy Marshall. There was a decline in 1967 when at the age of 44 he accepted the inevitable and retired from playing, although he served for a while as an umpire, then returned to Worcester as coach to the county team and the Royal Grammar School.

Fellow footballer and Hampshire team-mate Mike Barnard described Henry Horton as having “a great sense of humour” adding that he was “as straight as a die, solid as a rock”. This reputation succeeds him although Jimmy Gray will point out that while Roy Marshall was the great first innings run scorer it was often Henry who led the second innings chase for victory runs. Henry’s famous posterior-prevalent stance suggested an inelegant batsman but he was one of the great Hampshire run scorers and an irreplaceable member of Hampshire’s first truly great team.

He remained a bachelor through his life and after the cricket he went home to Herefordshire to live with his sisters until his death on 2 November 1998.