William Richard Hillyer (5 March 1813 – 8 January 1861), was a prominent 19th century English professional

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er for

Kent County Cricket Club Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ken ...

Marylebone Cricket Club The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's, Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London, England. The club was the governing body of cricket from 1788 to 1989 and retain ...

(MCC) and many other sides in the days before county and international cricket was organised into regular competitions.Billy Hillyer
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-11-05. He was born at

Leybourne Leybourne is a village and civil parish in Kent, England situated off Junction 4 of the M20 motorway, M20 Motorway. Leybourne is adjacent to New Hythe, East Malling and Larkfield, Larkfield and West Malling. As of 2020, Leybourne Parish had a po ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

in 1813, the son of an innkeeper.Brown R
William Hillyer
''The Cricketer'', recorded at

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. Retrieved 2017-11-05.Carlaw D (2020) ''Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part One: 1806–1914'' (revised edition), pp. 251–254.
Available online
at the

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. Retrieved 2020-12-21.) Hillyer first played for Kent in 1834 and was the "principal bowler" for the county teams until 1853. He took at least 514 wickets for Kent teams in 89 matches - a figure which is not precise as bowling figures were frequently not recorded accurately. At the time, scores were generally low due to the roughness of pitches, which were kept short by sheep and rolled if at all only with a light roller. Playing in an era when round-arm bowling had taken over from underarm but before overarm bowling was legalised, Hillyer bowled a little above medium pace from a "shuffling run" with a beautifully simple delivery, and was tremendously difficult to score off of due to his gain of pace off the pitch,Martin-Jenkins, Christopher ''Cricket, a way of life: the Cricketer illustrated history of cricket'', p. 17. ability to make the ball come with his arm (from leg to off) and constant shooters which bowled many batsmen. He recorded at least 149

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 batter. Takin ...

s and took 10 wickets in a match at least 54 times, and 13 in at least 14 matches. By the tail end of the 1830s he was already established as one of the leading bowlers in English cricket. During the 1840s he was statistically unmatched. Until the days of James Southerton no bowler ever took so many wickets in a season as Hillyer's 174 in 1845 - his nearest rival, Jemmy Dean, had taken 100. He took most first-class wickets in English cricket in each season from 1842 to 1849. As a batsman Hillyer was more modest and he only reached 40 three times. Nonetheless, in by far his highest innings, Hillyer became the first player to accomplish the still-treasured feat of a "match double", scoring 26 and 83 and taking 13 wickets for

(MCC) against

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in 1847.Frindall, Bill (editor); ''The Wisden Book of Cricket Records'' (Fourth Edition); pp. 317-320. He had first played for the Town Malling club and was employed as a professional by

(MCC) at

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket List of Test cricket grounds, venue in St John's Wood, Westminster. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex C ...

between 1838 and 1851, playing regularly in

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matches during the period. From 1850 onwards, Hillyer began to decline badly, suffering from

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and, beginning in 1852, he began to

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as was normal practice with professional players of the day. He fell and broke his thumb in 1855 which forced his retirement as a cricketer. He died at

Maidstone Maidstone is the largest Town status in the United Kingdom, town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town, l ...

in 1861, aged 47.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hillyer, William 1813 births 1861 deaths All-England Eleven cricketers English cricketers English cricketers of 1826 to 1863 Kent cricketers Surrey cricketers North v South cricketers Players cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Gentlemen of Nottinghamshire cricketers Cambridge Town Club cricketers Fast v Slow cricketers Gentlemen of Kent cricketers