Walter Hearne (15 January 1864 - 2 April 1925) 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 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 ...

towards the end of the 19th century. He played primarily as a bowler but suffered from injuries and his career was cut short as a result. He was the elder brother of the great

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 ...

bowler

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

who played 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 ...

Test cricket Test cricket is a form of first-class cricket played at international level between teams representing full member countries of the International Cricket Council (ICC). A match consists of four innings (two per team) and is scheduled to last fo ...

whilst his older brother, Herbert Hearne, also played for Kent. He was a member of the extended

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 ...

Early life and family

Hearne was born at Chalfont St Giles in

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

in 1864, the son of William Hearne who was considered a good local cricketer.Walter Hearne

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 ...

. Retrieved 2016-10-30.William Hearne
Obituaries in 1908, ''

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 ...

'', 1909. Retrieved 2017-10-29. Part of the extended

, Hearne and his brothers played cricket – he and Herbert for Kent and Jack and oldest brother William for Middlesex, although William only played for the Second XI. Three cousins played

as did Jack.

Cricket career

Hearne was a medium-paced right-arm bowler who, similar to his brother Jack bowled with great accuracy and a pronounced off-break.Hearne, Walter
Obituaries in 1925, ''

'', 1926. Retrieved 2017-10-30.Rice
Burnup and other absent friends left Kent out in the cold

. Retrieved 2017-10-31. He 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 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 1887, playing six matches in what was described as a "trial" period and did not appear for the county against until 1890 before becoming a regular member of the Kent team only in 1892.Walter Hearne
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-10-30. Most of Walter Hearne’s first-class cricket was played between 1892 and 1894, although a knee injury limited his appearances during 1893 to just six matches. He took 15 wickets against

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after Wemb ...

in 1893 and in 1894 completed a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

against the same side. During the 1894 season he took 116 first-class wickets, 99 of them in county matches, including a series of three matches in July when he took 13/61 against

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 ...

, 12/72 against

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...

and 13/98 against

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

– a total of 38 wickets for 231 runs. His 116 wickets were taken 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 13.29 and followed returns of 93 and 46 wickets in the previous two seasons.A short history of Kent cricket
''

'', 1907. Retrieved 2017-10-31. At the beginning of the 1895 season Walter Hearne’s knee failed and he was unable to play a first-class match during the season – although he was able to play in few non-first-class matches for MCC. He seemed fit at the start of the 1896 season but in his third match 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 ...

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

his knee "gave way so badly" that he was forced to retire from cricket, surgery proving ineffective.Pardon S (ed) (1897) ''

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 ...

'', p.129Pardon S (ed) (1898) ''

'', p.191.

Later life

Hearne took on the role of official scorer for Kent after his retirement, retaining the post for the rest of his life. He scored in each Kent's four

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...

winning sides between

1906 Events January–February * January 12 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: A nationalistic coalition of merchants, religious leaders and intellectuals in Persia forces the shah Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar to grant a constitution, ...

and

1913 Events January * January 5 – First Balkan War: Battle of Lemnos (1913), Battle of Lemnos – Greek admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis forces the Turkish fleet to retreat to its base within the Dardanelles, from which it will not ven ...

and resumed the role after 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 ...

. He died at

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. ...

in 1925 aged 61, his cousin

Alec Hearne Alec Hearne (22 July 1863 – 16 May 1952) was a member of the famous cricketing Hearne family. He played as a professional for Kent County Cricket Club between 1884 and 1906 and made one Test match appearance for England. He was an all-round ...

taking over the role of scorer.Hearne, Alec
Obituaries in 1952, ''

'', 1953. Retrieved 2016-04-06.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hearne, Walter 1864 births 1925 deaths English cricketers Kent cricketers Cricketers from Buckinghamshire