The Queen’s baton relay made a flying visit to the Broadhalfpenny Down ground on the outskirts of Hambledon, now the home of The Brigands Cricket Club.

Taking the Queen’s baton on to the cricket pitch was cancer sufferer Peter Trapmore, 57, who had been welcomed by the mayor of Winchester, Cllr Derek Green, along with the The Brigands Cricket Club committee and players.

Peter, originally from Hayling Island, is currently being treated at the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth for myeloma cancer

The 18th-century Bat & Ball public house opposite the cricket ground, the original home of the Hambledon Cricket Club, is widely accepted to be where the written rules for the game of cricket were first drafted. The pub was then called The Hutt and was used as the clubhouse.

Richard Nyren, the landlord of the pub from 1762 to 1772, was the Hambledon club’s team captain.

On this occasion in 2022 it was the current landlady Andrea Collins who welcomed Peter to The Bat & Ball.

The inaugural first class cricket match between Hampshire and an All-England Team was held at Broadhalfpenny Down in 1772.

It is appropriate in this Platinum Jubilee year for the Queen that The Monarch’s Way, a long-distance footpath, passes nearby the pub.

Words and photographs by Malcolm Wells