Lionel Paget Hedges (13 July 1900 – 12 January 1933) was an English amateur

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 whose feats as a schoolboy at

Tonbridge School (God Giveth the Increase) , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent day and boarding , religion = , president = , head_label ...

led him to be named, in 1919, as one of the

Wisden Cricketers of the Year The ''Wisden'' Cricketers of the Year are cricketers selected for the honour by the annual publication ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', based primarily on their "influence on the previous English season". The award began in 1889 with the naming ...

.Public School Cricket in 1918, ''

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 ...

'', 1919 p. 151

Early life and education

Hedges was born at

Streatham Streatham ( ) is a district in south London, England. Centred south of Charing Cross, it lies mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, with some parts extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth. Streatham was in Surrey ...

in London in 1900. He attended

Tonbridge School (God Giveth the Increase) , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent day and boarding , religion = , president = , head_label ...

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 ...

where he was in the school cricket team from 1916 to 1919.Hedges, Mr Lionel Paget
''

'', 1934. Retrieved 2017-11-01. He was described as a "brilliant schoolboy batsman", captaining the side during his final year. Hedges was one of five public schoolboys selected as

in the 1919 edition in the absence of first-class cricket during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

after scoring 632 runs for Tonbridge in 1918.Wilde S (2013) '1919 Five public school cricketers of the year' in ''Wisden Cricketers of the Year: A Celebration of Cricket's Greatest Players'' pp. 91–93. London" A&C Black.
Available online
retrieved 2017-11-01. He went on to an even better season in 1919, scoring a school record 1,038 runs, including scores of 193, 176 and 163.Obituaries: Mr L. P. Hedges, ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'', issue 46342, 1933-01-14, p. 6.

Cricket career

Hedges made his

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 ...

debut 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 ...

in July 1919 against

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 ...

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 32 miles (51 km) east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the c ...

in the

1919 County Championship 1919 was the 26th season of County Championship cricket in England and the first since 1914. The authorities had doubted if cricket would remain popular after a four-year break and the strain of war. It was decided that County Championship matc ...

.Lionel Hedges
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2015-03-08. He went up to

Trinity College, Oxford (That which you wish to be secret, tell to nobody) , named_for = The Holy Trinity , established = , sister_college = Churchill College, Cambridge , president = Dame Hilary Boulding , location = Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BH , coordinates ...

, later in the year and won a cricket

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when obs ...

as a freshman in 1920, going on to play in three

University match The University Match in a cricketing context is generally understood to refer to the annual fixture between Oxford University Cricket Club and Cambridge University Cricket Club. From 2001, as part of the reorganisation of first-class cricket, ...

es and appear in 35 first-class matches for the University cricket team. He continued to play for Kent whilst at Oxford. His best season was in 1921 when he scored 1,138 runs, whilst his highest score, 130 against

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

, came in 1920 at Maidstone. He played 52 times for Kent between 1919 and 1924, making two centuries, before leaving the county to take up a post as a school teacher at

Cheltenham College ("Work Conquers All") , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent School Day and Boarding School , religion = Church of England , president = , head_label = Head , head = Nicola Huggett ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

. He was considered to be an exceptional fielder, generally at cover point, throughout his cricketing career, although his batting, at first-class level at least, declined. Hedges played only one first-class match in 1925 whilst qualifying to play for

. He made his debut for his new county in 1926 and went on to play 30 times for them, most frequently at grounds in

Cheltenham Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...

. He played for

Cheltenham Cricket Club Cheltenham Cricket Club is an English amateur cricket club based in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire first envisioned in 1891. It played its first game on 21 June 1897 against a picked XI of WG Grace. The club's first team plays in the West of England ...

whilst a master at the college, scoring over 1,000 runs in 1925, his first with the club, and being elected captain ahead of the 1926 season.Landlords and not Tenants: 1925-1932
History,

. Retrieved 2017-11-01. His final first-class match came in August 1929 and he gave up the Cheltenham captaincy at the end of the same season, playing less club cricket in 1930 and 1931 before appearing regularly again for Cheltenham in 1932. He was expected to be awarded the captaincy again in 1933 but died before the start of the new season.A Great Team Built: 1933-1939
History,

. Retrieved 2017-11-01.

Professional and private life

Hedges worked as a school master at

from the autumn of 1924 until his death. He was an "accomplished amateur stage actor" and well known for his "exceptional personality".Wilde ''

Op. cit. ''Op. cit.'' is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase ' or ''opere citato'', meaning "the work cited" or ''in the cited work'', respectively. Overview The abbreviation is used in an endnote or footnote to refer the reader to a cited work, standing ...

'', p. 93. In 1931 he acted in the film ''

Tell England ''Tell England: A Study in a Generation'' is a novel written by Ernest Raymond and published in February 1922 in the United Kingdom. Its themes are the First World War and the young men sent to fight in it. The book became a bestseller, some 3 ...

''. Hedges died in 1933 at Cheltenham at the age of 32 after contracting

influenza Influenza, commonly known as "the flu", is an infectious disease caused by influenza viruses. Symptoms range from mild to severe and often include fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pain, headache, coughing, and fatigue. These symptoms ...

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hedges, Lionel 1900 births 1933 deaths Oxford University cricketers Kent cricketers Gloucestershire cricketers Wisden Cricketers of the Year English cricketers Gentlemen cricketers Harlequins cricketers People educated at Tonbridge School Alumni of Trinity College, Oxford Deaths from influenza Sportspeople from Streatham