William Hendley (16 November 1834 – 4 September 1895)His age at death was given as 57, so he may have been born in 1837 or 1838. was a New Zealand

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er. He played eight first-class matches for

Otago Otago (, ; mi, Ōtākou ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government reg ...

between 1864 and 1873.

Life and career

Hendley was born in England, where he worked as a farm labourer in

East Anglia East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...

before migrating to the

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literature ...

goldfields in about 1860. He played cricket in the

Castlemaine Castlemaine may mean: * Castlemaine, Victoria, a town in Victoria, Australia ** Castlemaine Football Club, an Australian rules football club ** Castlemaine railway station * Castlemaine, County Kerry, a town in Ireland * Castlemaine Brewery, Western ...

area between 1860 and 1864.George Thomas, "Stumped and Bowled Hendley", ''The Cricket Statistician'', Spring 2022, pp. 17–22. Hendley moved to

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

in 1864 and took up the position of groundsman and professional bowler and coach with the Dunedin Cricket Club. A right-arm medium-paced bowler, he was a strong man, five feet ten and a half inches tall, said to be able to carry a sack of wheat under each arm. Hendley was one of the first bowlers in first-class cricket to run out a batsman who was backing up out of his crease. He did it on two occasions, both against

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. ...

: dismissing Walter Wilson in February 1865, and

Richard Powys Richard Powys (19 August 1844 – 10 June 1913) was an English cricketer. He played in two first-class matches in New Zealand for Canterbury from 1865 to 1867. See also * List of Canterbury representative cricketers This is a list of a ...

in February 1866. The dismissals were considered unusual but not controversial. The ''

Lyttelton Times The ''Lyttelton Times'' was the first newspaper in Canterbury, New Zealand, publishing the first edition in January 1851. It was established by the Canterbury Association as part of its planned settlement of Canterbury and developed into a libera ...

'' reporter in February 1865 was evidently unfamiliar with the mode of dismissal and recorded it among the scores as "Mr. Wilson, st and b Hendley 2" – that is, stumped and bowled by Hendley, which is not a possible dismissal under the laws of cricket. In his first match for Otago, Hendley took 5 for 37 and 2 for 26 in a four-wicket loss to Canterbury in the 1865 match when he ran out Wilson. His best first-class bowling figures were 8 for 28 and 3 for 34, when Otago beat Canterbury by four wickets in December 1869. Hendley remained active in Dunedin cricket for the rest of his life, as groundsman, coach, umpire and professional player and bowler. A few days after his death from

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

in September 1895 a new club was inaugurated in Dunedin and named the Hendley Cricket Club in his honour. Hendley's wife Jane died of consumption in 1879, and their three young daughters were admitted to the Industrial School in Dunedin, where neglected and orphaned children were housed and trained for useful work. The daughters all grew up, and Hendley's will left "a little money for division" among them.

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hendley, Bill 1834 births 1895 deaths British emigrants to New Zealand Cricketers from Hertfordshire New Zealand cricketers Otago cricketers Deaths from pneumonia in New Zealand