Henry Claude Hickson (4 September 1878 – 15 July 1948) was a New Zealand

cricketer 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 ...

who played

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for

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

from 1898 to 1912, and represented

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

in the days before New Zealand played

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. A batsman who sometimes opened the innings, Claude Hickson was described in 1899 as a steady batsman with a "splendid defence ... a veritable heart-breaker to the opposing trundlers" and a "capital field in the slips". He was selected to play for New Zealand against Lord Hawke's English team in 1902-03 after scoring 73 and 20 for Wellington against them. However, he was not successful, and New Zealand lost heavily. In 1904-05 he again performed well against the touring team, scoring 56 not out in Wellington's second innings to play the leading part in saving the match against the touring Australians. He played in the second of New Zealand's two matches against the Australians, but again without success. He made his only first-class century a year later when he scored a chanceless 135 against Auckland. "No chance could be urged against him, and he batted with a welcome freedom that ought to encourage him to abandon his somewhat precise methods in future." Wellington won by 214 runs. Hickson was also a prominent hockey player who captained Wellington. He worked for the Pensions Department in Wellington.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hickson, Claude 1878 births 1948 deaths New Zealand cricketers Pre-1930 New Zealand representative cricketers Wellington cricketers New Zealand male field hockey players Cricketers from Wellington City