It was 70 years ago when West Indies legend Everton Weekes wrote his name into the Hampshire record books ...

This week’s Test match at The Ageas Bowl comes 120 years to the month since the national side first played a game in this county.

It was on July 26 1900 that the Windies started a three-day game against Hampshire which they won by 88 runs with Joseph ‘Float’ Woods bagging 10 wickets.

West Indies subsequently visited Hampshire on most of their tours up to and including 1976.

All the games were in Southampton apart from a 1939 visit to Bournemouth.

The Windies returned for a one-day game in 1988, Hampshire legend Gordon Greenidge showing the home supporters what they were missing with 103.

The last two three-day games between the teams took place in 1991 and 1995.

Carl Hooper hammered 196 in the first match (in a total of 449-6) and almost emulated that feat with 195 (out of 696-6) four years later.

Hampshire did beat the Windies in 1995 in a one-day game at the County Ground, current director of cricket Giles White hitting an unbeaten 68 in a 43-run victory.

It was hardly a Windies second XI either - Brian Lara, captain Richie Richardson, Hooper, Ian Bishop and Curtly Ambrose all featuring.

The most impressive individual performance by a West Indian in Hampshire, though, belongs to a Caribbean legend who passed away recently.

But first, a bit of background for you ...

Everton Weekes, the Caribbean cricket legend who died on July 1 aged 95, remains the only man in Test history to record five consecutive hundreds.

That remarkable record is even more astonishing when you consider Weekes achieved it in his first year of international cricket.

That red hot streak came in 1948, with an innings of 141 against Sir Gubby Allen's England in only his fourth Test.

That was followed by knocks of 128, 194, 162 and 101 against India, the last two in the same Test.

He could have extended that sensational run to six centuries had he not been run out somewhat controversially for 90 in Madras.

But his performances on the Windies’ historic tour of England in 1950 are worthy of a closer look as the two nations resumed their rivalry at The Ageas Bowl yesterday.

Just over 70 years ago, in late June 1950, Weekes scored 63 in each innings as the Windies won their first Test on English soil, at Lord’s.

A few days later he walked out to the middle of the tourists’ three-day game against Hampshire at Southampton’s County Ground.

By the time John Goddard had declared on 539-4 at the end of the first day’s play - 142 overs had been bowled - Weekes was undefeated on 246.

It was, and remains, the highest score ever made against Hampshire outside of the Championship.

Roy Marshall - later to become a Hampshire legend - struck 135.

Incredibly, it was Weekes’ fourth double century of the tour after previous Bradman-esque innings of 232 (v Surrey), 304 not out (v Cambridge University, in a score of 730-3) and 279 v Nottinghamshire.

A fifth followed in his very next innings, Weekes hitting an unbeaten 200 at Grace Road as the West Indies rattled up an eye-popping 682-2 declared against Leicestershire.

Marshall added 188 while Frank Worrell belted 241. Weekes and Walcott - two members of the legendary three Ws alongside Clyde Walcott - shared an unbroken stand of 340 for the third wicket.

Weekes then made it three centuries from three visits to the crease in the third Test at Trent Bridge, though he was unable to celebrate a third double ton in a row - dismissed for 139 before Worrell went on to reach 261.

The Windies eventually won the Test series 3-1, their first ever victory in this country.

It is a series that remains in cricketing folklore due to the exploits of spinner Alf Valentine (33) and Sonny Ramadhin (26) sharing 59 wickets. All the other bowlers only took 18 English wickets between them.

Weekes would end the calendar year with six double tons - he had previously amassed 236 not out for Barbados in February 1950 against British Guyana (Marshall hitting 191).

He finished the tour of England with 2,310 first class runs in just 20 games.

That is by no means a record total for any touring side in England. Don Bradman, for example, scored more on three of his four visits with Australia - a list headed by his 2,960 runs on his first tour in 1930.

The 1950 tour would prove to be the Windies’ first of eight series wins in this country. Unlike the first one, though, most of the next seven would be dominated by the tourists’ one-time production line of fearsome fast bowlers – a list including Hampshire legends Andy Roberts and Malcolm Marshall.

But sporting success tends to go in cycles, and the West Indies have certainly found that to be true in England.

Between 1976 and 1988 inclusive, they played 20 Tests and didn’t lose any of them, winning 12. Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards captained their side in four successive winning series on English soil.

Since 1991, though, the Windies have made eight visits for a Test series and haven’t won a single one. After draws in 1991 and again four years later, they have lost the last six.

That run started in the amazing summer of 2000 when, after losing the first Test, England ran out 3-1 winners.

In the second Test at Lord’s, Andrew Caddick bagged 5-16 as the Windies were routed for just 54 in their second innings after enjoying a 133-run first innings lead.

England won a tense encounter on 191-8, after being 160-8 at one stage.

The fourth Test at Headingley lasted only two days of the scheduled five with England winning by an innings.

This time Caddick (5-14) bagged four wickets in one over - including that of former Hampshire bowler Nixon McLean - as the tourists were skittled for 61 in their second innings.

In the fifth Test, Craig White - later to spend six years as a coach at Hampshire - claimed 5-32 as the Windies were dismissed for 125 in their first innings.

Will England be in seventh heaven when the first Test series of the pandemic era is over?