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John Alfred ('Jack') NEWMAN

Jack Newman shares with just two other men, George Dennett (Gloucestershire) and Don Shepherd (Glamorgan) the distinction of taking over 2,000 First-Class wickets without ever appearing in a single Test match. In addition, in 506 matches, Jack Newman scored nearly 14,000 runs for Hampshire with nine centuries and 62 half centuries. He completed the season’s double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets on five occasions in the 1920s. In 1927 he had match figures of 16-88 v Somerset at Weston-Super-Mare which remains a Hampshire record. In the previous season he scored 66 and 42 not out and took 14-148 against Gloucestershire.

He was, therefore, an outstanding all-rounder who made his county debut in 1906 and, alongside Mead, Brown and his bowling partner Kennedy, formed the professional nucleus of the strongest Hampshire side to that date. During the 1920s, under the captaincy of Lionel Tennyson, they could compete with the best sides – although never for the title – until Newman was the first of these to retire in 1930 in his mid-forties.

He was born in Southsea, although the family moved to Netley from where he travelled one day to the county ground and bowled in the nets to the senior players. This made sufficient impression that he was offered a contract and his career began at a time when Hampshire were pulling away from being the weakest side in the country. Newman’s all-round skilled extended to him taking the new ball and bowling off-spin while, in necessity, he would open the batting.

Jack Newman was a tall, lean man who could be prone to moods. On one occasion he was sent from the field by Tennyson after refusing to bowl and, that evening, the captain dictated letters of apology to their hosts – after which he gave Jack a five-pound note, a significant sum in the 1920s!

He retired on medical advice and spent nine years umpiring before he moved to South Africa and coached to a great age. He made a welcome return visit to the County Ground in the 1960s and died in 1973 a few months after Hampshire won their second title. He remains one of the greatest of Hampshire’s cricketers born within the county and, given the changes to First-Class cricket, his career records will never be matched let alone beaten in the future.