Mike SWANTON

Mike joined Hythe in the late fifties from Exbury. His father Bert also played cricket for Hythe after joining them from Husbands.

By the early sixties Mike was playing first team cricket enjoying success as a middle order batsman and off break bowler.In fact in the 1962 season he took an impressive 75 wickets @ 11.37.

In 1964 Mike was in the Hythe side that lost the Sydney Wyatt Final be 1 run to Minstead. Mike scored 20 in the run chase and also went onto take 31 wickets that season.

In both the 1969 and the 1970 season Mike took 48 wickets including a 7-57 against Wimbourne.

When League cricket was introduced Mike filtered between the firsts and seconds. In the County 1 Championship winning season of 1976 he took 14 wickets for the First XI and also played in the Sydney Cup Final where Hythe beat Lymington by 8 wickets to secure the double. But Mike also played a few Second XI matches including a tremendous all round performance vs Winterslow where he scored 71* and took 7-40.

Mike Captained the Second XI in the Southern League between 1985 & 1988 and did a fantastic job for the club as the Second XI continually found the going tough in the top flight. With a mass exodus of players as well during that time its very difficult to explain the job he actually did.

1989 was his Mike's final season for the club - with the exception of a small period when he turned out for Southampton Touring Club Mike spent thirty years playing for the green caps - 3,000 runs including a highes score of 102* and 500 wickets - deserves to be called a Hythe Legend.