Hampshire Hawks enjoyed a record-breaking T20 season on and off the pitch as the team made a record tenth appearance at Finals Day and welcomed more than 50,000 fans to The Ageas Bowl.

The Hawks were unfortunate to lose to Essex Eagles in a rain-affected semi-final at Edgbaston.

But despite the disappointment of not securing back-to-back Blast titles, the Hawks can look back positively.

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The overall attendance of 56,051 across the eight home Blast fixtures was nearly 8,000 higher than the total for 2022 and a record for a single T20 season.

The highest individual attendance came against Essex in a game which also saw the Hawks complete their record T20 run-chase – passing Essex’s score of 209 with four balls to spare, helped by James Vince’s 74 off 42 balls.

Vince’s string of impressive performances this season saw him become the leading domestic T20 run scorer; he now has more than 5,500 runs to his name in the competition, all scored during his 13-year career with the Hawks.

That form with the bat saw him named runner-up in the Professional Cricketers’ Association’s overall MVP rankings for the Blast competition and top the batting charts. He was also named in the team of the tournament by The Cricketer, alongside fellow Hawks Ben McDermott and Nathan Ellis, with breakthrough star John Turner given an honourable mention after narrowly missing out.

Other season highlights included Hampshire securing their first-ever ten-wicket win in the Blast when they beat south coast rivals Sussex Sharks at The Ageas Bowl, comfortably passing Sussex’s 144 without losing a wicket to take bragging rights in the ‘el clasicoast’ derby.

It wasn’t just the Hawks who had supporters flocking to The Ageas Bowl. The Southern Vipers, who represent the region in domestic women’s T20 cricket, hosted two games at The Ageas Bowl on their way to successfully defending their Charlotte Edwards Cup title. The combined attendance of 6,671 across both games was also a record.

Greig Stewart, Head of Customer Experience at The Ageas Bowl, said: “We’re incredibly fortunate to receive such superb backing and a lot of the players have commented on how fantastic the atmosphere has been at T20 games this season – one of the best we’ve known."