It says plenty for Hampshire's pedigree in the T20 Blast that one of the junior members of the side is gearing up for his fourth Finals Day appearance. Scott Currie was nine - and still to make a decision over whether he would prefer to pursue cricket or football as part of Portsmouth's academy - when Hampshire won their first T20 title in 2010. This weekend, the club will be in contention at English cricket's T20 showpiece for the 11th time in 16 seasons.
Currie, now 24, heads back to Edgbaston as Hampshire's leading wicket-taker in the competition this year, and having played every game as part of a seam-bowling group that features the wily old salts, Chris Wood, Benny Howell and James Fuller, as well as young pace merchant Sonny Baker, recently capped by England.
Since breaking into the first XI in 2021, when his 19 wickets at 12.84 helped Hampshire to reach the Blast semi-finals, Currie has quietly carved out a niche as one of the most effective seamers operating in the domestic game. At 6ft 5in and with the required range of variations to succeed in modern short-form cricket, he has stood out for his calm temperament. "I might not be the most talented or have the express pace of, say, Sonny, but I've got my own skill set I try to stick to," he tells ESPNcricinfo.
Part of that is a willingness to do the "dirty work at the end of the innings", fully aware that a bowler can just as easily become the villain as the hero in such scenarios. It's a quality his captain, James Vince, a man involved on all 11 of Hampshire's trips to Finals Day, doubtless values.
"It's not glamorous, but it's about trying to get a job done for the team," Currie says. "I do relish those moments, because I think that's where you learn about yourself. I'd rather be in those moments, and maybe not on the right side of the result, but you're learning about yourself, and you're learning for next time what you need to do differently
"[I've] probably only been doing it the last couple of years, but in that short time, I've messed it up untold times, I've got it right a few times. That's just the nature of the game. You get it right, people think you're great. You get it wrong and you look a bit foolish. But yeah, I'm more than happy to step into those roles, and I think the captains that I've played under appreciate that, and it probably helps me stay slightly ahead, and maybe gets me picked in teams where others might not necessarily fulfill those roles."
Currie has had to bide his time with Hampshire - he was 12th man when they won the Blast in dramatic circumstances in 2022, and again when they lost in the semi-finals in 2023 - but has done a diligent apprenticeship. He cites former team-mate Nathan Ellis, the Australian overseas who held his nerve (twice) to seal Hampshire's title three years ago, as someone he has consciously tried to emulate, particularly when bowling at the death.
"He always had this thing where Vince would call him to bowl, he knew he was bowling at the end, and he would always run towards the crease to give his hat to the umpire. And I saw that as 'Wow, he looks like he wants to be there'. It's something I sort of tried to copy and tried to use. He never shied away, he was always in those moments."
A season on loan at Leicestershire also helped hone Currie's skills, under the tutelage of one of the original greats of English T20, Alfonso Thomas. Currie finished as the Foxes' leading wicket-taker in the Blast and was picked up as an injury replacement for Manchester Originals in the Hundred, where he has played every game over the last two summers - and which led to sharing a dressing room with James Anderson, who at 43 will be making an improbable return to Finals Day himself with Lancashire.
"You always hear people talk about players from the past, where they were watching them on the TV and then suddenly found themselves in the same changing room. And yeah, I was no different. We grew up watching Jim bowl, taking the new ball for England, and he was sort of a pinnacle of cricket, wasn't he? Jimmy's personality, by nature, he's quite quiet, people always say he's a little bit grumpy, and I may be quite similar. So I didn't know how that was going to go, but Jimmy was great. He warmed to the comp, and he took it all in. And there was no ego. There was no sort of stubbornness about this is what I do. He was very forthcoming with ideas, very open to ideas."
Before Currie, or Hampshire, can think about coming up against Lancashire in a repeat of the 2022 final, they will have to get past Northamptonshire on Saturday afternoon. If they manage that, they will be halfway to becoming the first team to win England's domestic T20 competition four times (maybe more than halfway, given the victor in the second semi-final has gone on to lift the trophy on each of the last six occasions).
The availability of Bjorn Fortuin, despite being called into South Africa's squad for the concurrently staged T20I series against England - which has shorn Hampshire of Liam Dawson, among a number of Finals Day absentees - is a boost to their hopes of reaching uncharted territory. The other spinner in Hampshire's 15-man squad, Andrew Neal, has yet to play a senior T20.
But the performances of Currie and their leading Blast run-scorer this season, opener Toby Albert, alongside other homegrown talents like Tom Prest (22) and Eddie Jack (19), suggests that the club's culture of success won't dry up when the likes of Vince, Wood and Dawson take their leave of the Hollies Stand in full flow.
"We're blessed with the group we've got," Currie says. "We're blessed with the coaching staff we've got. There's probably more than meets the eye, it goes beyond just the playing group. It's a whole squad effort. There's lads who will be traveling and sitting in the stands… People won't quite won't get the accolade they deserve, but they're integral parts to the club.
"If you look through our season, we've had people step up at every juncture, every different stage. Eddie Jack played three games, and I think he played three of the tougher ones, Merchant Taylors, Taunton and Bristol … But as a 19-year-old kid, to step into those moments is massive. And then, you know, when we got Sonny [Baker] back for the back end of the group stage, it was like a breath of fresh air, almost a new lease of life for the team. We entered a period of six games where we had to win at least half, and we went on to do that, and he added real venom to the attack.
"It's great that we've had various different people, whether that be youngsters or the senior players, step up at different times as the sign of a good team. I'm sure there'll be someone stepping up again come Saturday, and hopefully that leads us all the way to the final and then maybe a trophy."
Finals Day will allow Hampshire to park, for the weekend at least, the points deduction that threatens their status in Division One of the County Championship. Currie could have left to join Leicestershire permanently after his loan spell, but says "Hampshire has always been my home" and is focused on breaking into the red-ball side. It goes without saying that he would prefer to fulfil those aspirations in the top tier (not least because Leicestershire secured their own promotion this week).
It is also a chance to give departing head coach, Adi Birrell, a fitting send-off after seven seasons (and almost as many trips to the Blast's big day out). "He's been a wonderful servant to Hampshire, and acts as almost a father figure for a lot of people around the club. Yeah, if anything, it'll be about trying to give him what he deserves on Saturday."