William Spence (or Spencer) Hemming (17 August 1826 – 8 December 1897) was an English clergyman and a

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 ...

er who played for

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

in 1848. He was born at

Little Parndon Little is a synonym for small size and may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Little'' (album), 1990 debut album of Vic Chesnutt * ''Little'' (film), 2019 American comedy film *The Littles, a series of children's novels by American author John P ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

and died at Rayne, also in Essex. Hemming played three matches subsequently judged to be first-class for Cambridge University in May 1848, appearing as a tail-end batsman to little effect but enjoying great success as a bowler: he took 21 wickets in his three games, including two returns of six wickets in an innings. Full statistics are not available for these games and neither his batting nor his bowling style is known. There is no record of any other cricket appearances, either in first-class or minor cricket.

Career outside cricket

Hemming was educated at Kensington in London and at

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 170 graduate students. The college was founded by William Byngham in 1437 as ...

. He was ordained as a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

priest after his graduation and served as the curate of Rayne in Essex from 1851 to 1855, and then as the village's rector from 1855 until his death in 1897.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hemming, William 1826 births 1897 deaths English cricketers Cambridge University cricketers Sportspeople from Harlow People from Braintree District Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge 19th-century English Anglican priests