George Gibbons Hearne (7 July 1856 – 13 February 1932) was an English professional

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 who played

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

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 Ke ...

between 1875 and 1895. He also played in one

Test match Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...

for

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

against

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

in 1891/92. Hearne was part of the famous cricketing

Hearne family The Hearne family was a notable English cricketing family. Thirteen members of the family played first-class cricket, including five for Kent County Cricket Club and five for Middlesex County Cricket Club. Six played Test cricket: four for Eng ...

. His brothers

Alec Alec or Aleck is a Scottish form of the given name Alex. It may be a diminutive of the name Alexander or a given name in its own right. Notable people with the name include: People * Alec Aalto (1942–2018), Finnish diplomat *Alec Acton (1938� ...

and

Frank Frank or Franks may refer to: People * Frank (given name) * Frank (surname) * Franks (surname) * Franks, a medieval Germanic people * Frank, a term in the Muslim world for all western Europeans, particularly during the Crusades - see Farang Curre ...

also played Test match cricket.

Early life

Hearne was born on 7 July 1856 in

Ealing Ealing () is a district in West London, England, west of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Ealing. Ealing is the administrative centre of the borough and is identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan. Ealing was histor ...

in what was then

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

. His father, George Hearne, had played for

and became the groundsman at Kent's

Private Banks Sports Ground Private Banks Sports Ground is a cricket and multi-use sports ground in Catford Bridge in the London Borough of Lewisham. The ground, which was in the historic county of Kent until 1889, was used as a first-class cricket venue by Kent County Cr ...

Catford Catford is a district in south east London, England, and the administrative centre of the London Borough of Lewisham. It is southwest of Lewisham itself, mostly in the Rushey Green (ward), Rushey Green and Catford South Ward (electoral subdiv ...

in 1872.Hearne, Alec
Obituaries in 1952, ''

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

'', 1953. Retrieved 2016-04-06.Ambrose D (2003
Brief profile of GG Hearne
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-10-29. His brothers,

and

, both also played for Kent. George's mother was Mary Gibbons, the daughter of a Devon farmer.

Cricket career

Hearne made his

debut for

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

in 1875 at the age of 19 at

.Hearne, George Gibbons
Obituaries in 1932, ''

'', 1933. Retrieved 2017-10-28. In 1876 he was engaged on the staff at

Prince's Cricket Ground Prince's Cricket Ground in Chelsea, London was a cricket ground, created by the brothers George and James Prince as part of the Prince's Club, on which 37 first-class matches were played between 1872 and 1878. The ground was built on in 1883. The ...

and in 1877 on the

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

ground staff where he would remain until 1901. He worked with his father preparing cricket grounds during the winter and opened a sports outfitter's in

Lewisham Lewisham () is an area of southeast London, England, south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and was within the Historic counties of England, historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified i ...

. In all he played for Kent for 21 seasons, making over 250 times for Kent as well as making 49 first-class appearances for MCC.George Hearne
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-10-28. He was awarded his

county cap In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

in 1885 and a benefit season in 1890. His final match for Kent was in 1895, although he continued to play sporadically for MCC until 1903 in first-class cricket and his last recorded match for the club was in 1915. Primarily a bowler in the early years of his career, he took 686 wickets for Kent at an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

of 17 runs per wicket.Got him!

CricInfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a d ...

, 2003-07-07. Retrieved 2017-10-28. He bowled left-arm fast-medium using a round arm action a moved the ball from the leg-side to the off-side, resulting in many dismissals caught in the slips. In his later career he developed his batting more effectively and became a "genuine all-rounder",Liverman
A profile of GG Hearne
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-10-29. making 1,000 runs in 1886, 987 of them for Kent. His top score of 126 was made at

Gravesend Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, situated 21 miles (35 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross (central London) on the Bank (geography), south bank of the River Thames and opposite Tilbury in Essex. Located in the diocese of Ro ...

that season against

and included a partnership of 226 runs with his brother

. He played in the Kent side that beat the touring Australians in 1884 and took eight wickets in an innings on multiple occasions.

International cricket

Hearne was chosen to tour South Africa as part of

Walter Read Walter William Read (born 23 November 1855 in Reigate, Surrey, died 6 January 1907 in Addiscombe Park, Surrey) was an English cricketer. A fluent right hand bat, he was also an occasional bowler of lobs who sometimes switched to quick overa ...

's XI in 1891–1892. The tour took place at the same time as another team, captained by

W G Grace William Gilbert Grace (18 July 1848 – 23 October 1915) was an English amateur cricketer who was important in the development of the sport and is widely considered one of its greatest players. He played first-class cricket for a record-equa ...

, were representing England against Australia. The sole first-class match on the tour was against a South African XI and this match was retrospectively given

status. He scored just nine runs in the Test match but acquitted himself well on the tour in general.The English team in South Africa 1891–92
''

'', 1893. Retrieved 2016-04-06. In the Test match, played at

Newlands Cricket Ground Newlands Cricket Ground (known as Six Gun Grill Newlands for sponsorship reasons) in Cape Town is a South African cricket ground. It is the home of the Cape Cobras, who play in the Sunfoil Series, Momentum 1 Day Cup and RamSlam Pro20 competit ...

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

, Hearne played on the same side as his brother

and cousin

John Thomas Hearne John Thomas Hearne (3 May 1867 – 17 April 1944)
cricinfo.com (known as Jack Hearne, J. T. Hearne or Old Jack Hearne ...

. His other brother Frank played for the South African side, having previously played for England.Williamson M, Miller A (2006
Identity crisis

, 2006-10-10. Retrieved 2016-04-05. Findall B (2010) ''The Wisden Book of Test Cricket, 1877–1977''.
Available online
retrieved 2016-04-06).

Family and later life

Hearne married Mary Jane Strawn, the daughter of a Joseph Sharon, a coachman, on 12 March 1881. Mary died in 1916, after which George moved in with his unmarried daughter, Mabel. Hearne died at

King's College Hospital King's College Hospital is a major teaching hospital and major trauma centre in Denmark Hill, Camberwell in the London Borough of Lambeth, referred to locally and by staff simply as "King's" or abbreviated internally to "KCH". It is managed by K ...

Denmark Hill Denmark Hill is an area and road in Camberwell, in the London Borough of Southwark. It is a sub-section of the western flank of the Norwood Ridge, centred on the long, curved Ruskin Park slope of the ridge. The road is part of the A215 road, A21 ...

in London in 1932 of bronchitis and influenza in 1932. He was 75.George Hearne

. Retrieved 2017-10-28.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hearne, George Gibbons 1856 births 1932 deaths England Test cricketers English cricketers Kent cricketers Players cricketers People from Ealing Deaths from bronchitis Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Players of the South cricketers North v South cricketers