James Rupert Christopher Hamblin (born 16 August 1978) is an English former

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er. The son of the cricketer Bryan Hamblin, he was born at

Pembury Pembury is a large village in Kent, in the south east of England, with a population of 6,128 at the 2011 Census. It lies just to the north-east of Royal Tunbridge Wells. The village centre, including the village green and High Street area is a ...

in August 1978. Hamblin was educated at

Charterhouse School (God having given, I gave) , established = , closed = , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , president ...

, before matriculating to the

University of the West of England The University of the West of England (also known as UWE Bristol) is a public research university, located in and around Bristol, England. The institution was know as the Bristol Polytechnic in 1970; it received university status in 1992 and ...

. While studying at Bristol, he was selected to tour South Africa with the

British Universities cricket team The British Universities cricket team was a cricket team whose players were drawn from university students studying in Great Britain. The team played under the title of Combined Universities until 1995. The team played List A cricket from 1975 t ...

in the winter of 1999. He later made his debut in

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

for

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

against

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

Edgbaston Edgbaston () is an affluent suburban area of central Birmingham, England, historically in Warwickshire, and curved around the southwest of the city centre. In the 19th century, the area was under the control of the Gough-Calthorpe family an ...

in the 2001 County Championship. Hamblin featured infrequently for Hampshire in first-class cricket, making eleven appearances to 2003. Playing as an

all-rounder An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are consi ...

for Hampshire, he scored 440 runs in first-class cricket at an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

of 27.50, with three half centuries. With his right-arm

medium pace bowling Fast bowling (also referred to as pace bowling) is one of two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket, the other being spin bowling. Practitioners of pace bowling are usually known as ''fast'' bowlers, ''quicks'', or ''pacemen''. T ...

, he took 14 wickets at a

bowling average In cricket, a player's bowling average is the number of runs they have conceded per wicket taken. The lower the bowling average is, the better the bowler is performing. It is one of a number of statistics used to compare bowlers, commonly use ...

of 51.64, taking one

five wicket haul In cricket, a five-wicket haul (also known as a "five–for" or "fifer") occurs when a bowler takes five or more wickets in a single innings. This is regarded by critics as a notable achievement, equivalent to a century from a batsman. Taking ...

. His best first-class batting and bowling performances came in the same match against

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

in the

2003 County Championship The 2003 County Championship season, known as the Frizzell County Championship, was the 103rd County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first ...

, when he scored 96 and took figures of 6 for 93. It was as a one-day cricketer that Hamblin was utilised most by Hampshire, making his debut in List A one-day cricket against

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

at the

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

in the 2001 Norwich Union League. He made a total of 48 appearances in one-day cricket for Hampshire until 2004. He scored 656 runs in one-day cricket, at an average of 16.82; he made two half centuries, with a highest score of 61. With the ball, he took 28 wickets at a bowling average of 32.39, with best figures of 4 for 29. In June 2003, he featured in Hampshire's first-ever

Twenty20 Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single innin ...

match, played against

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

at Southampton in the

Twenty20 Cup The T20 Blast, currently named the Vitality Blast for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Twenty20 cricket competition for English and Welsh first-class counties. The competition was established by the England and Wales Cricket Board (E ...

. In this match, he became Hampshire's first

man-of-the-match In team sport, a player of the match or man of the match or woman of the match award is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chosen from the winn ...

in Twenty20 cricket, scoring a 27-ball 34 at the top of the order and sharing in an opening partnership of 66 with

Derek Kenway Derek Anthony Kenway (born 12 June 1978) is an English cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman who bowls right-arm Seam bowling, medium pace, who can also play as a wicketkeeper. First-class debut and early career Born in Fareham, Kenway made ...

. He made a further four appearances in that season's competition, but did not feature in Twenty20 cricket the following season. He was released by Hampshire at the end of the 2004 season, alongside several other players. In 2022, he took part in celebrations at Hambledon celebrating 250 years of first-class cricket, alongside

Mark Nicholas Mark Charles Jefford Nicholas (born 29 September 1957) is an English cricket commentator and former cricketer and broadcaster. He played for Hampshire from 1978 to 1995, captaining them from 1985 to his retirement. Nicholas was born in Westmi ...

and the actor

Rory Kinnear Rory Michael Kinnear (born 17 February 1978) is an English actor and playwright who has worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre. In 2014, he won the Olivier Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of William S ...

, amongst others.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hamblin, James 1978 births Living people Cricketers from Pembury People educated at Charterhouse School Alumni of the University of Bristol English cricketers Hampshire Cricket Board cricketers Hampshire cricketers