William Richard Hillyer (5 March 1813 – 8 January 1861), was a prominent 19th century 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 ...

Marylebone Cricket Club Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...

(MCC) and many other sides in the days before county and international cricket was organised into regular competitions.Billy Hillyer
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-11-05. He was born at

Leybourne Leybourne is a small village and civil parish in Kent, England situated off Junction 4 of the M20 Motorway. Leybourne is adjacent to New Hythe, Larkfield and West Malling. As of 2020 Leybourne Parish had a population of 4,372. Historically, the ...

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 1813, the son of an innkeeper.Brown R
William Hillyer
''The Cricketer'', recorded at

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. Retrieved 2017-11-05.Carlaw D (2020) ''Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part One: 1806–1914'' (revised edition), pp. 251–254.
Available online
at the

Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS) was founded in England in 1973 for the purpose of researching and collating information about the history and statistics of cricket. Originally called the Association of Cricket Stati ...

. Retrieved 2020-12-21.) Hillyer first played for Kent in 1834 and was the "principal bowler" for the county teams until 1853. He took at least 514 wickets for Kent teams in 89 matches - a figure which is not precise as bowling figures were frequently not recorded accurately. At the time, scores were generally low due to the roughness of pitches, which were kept short by sheep and rolled if at all only with a light roller. Playing in an era when round-arm bowling had taken over from underarm but before overarm bowling was legalised, Hillyer bowled a little above medium pace from a "shuffling run" with a beautifully simple delivery, and was tremendously difficult to score off of due to his gain of pace off the pitch,Martin-Jenkins, Christopher ''Cricket, a way of life: the Cricketer illustrated history of cricket'', p. 17. ability to make the ball come with his arm (from leg to off) and constant shooters which bowled many batsmen. He recorded at least 149

five-wicket haul In cricket, a five-wicket haul (also known as a "five–for" or "fifer") occurs when a bowler takes five or more wickets in a single innings. This is regarded by critics as a notable achievement, equivalent to a century from a batsman. Takin ...

s and took

10 wickets in a match In cricket, a ten-wicket haul occurs when a bowler takes ten wickets in either a single innings or across both innings of a two-innings match. The phrase ten wickets in a match is also used. Taking ten wickets in a match at Lord's earns the bow ...

at least 54 times, and 13 in at least 14 matches. By the tail end of the 1830s he was already established as one of the leading bowlers in English cricket. During the 1840s he was statistically unmatched. Until the days of

James Southerton James Southerton (16 November 1827 – 16 June 1880) was a professional cricketer who played first-class cricket between 1854 and 1879. After a slow start, he became, along with Alfred Shaw, the greatest slow bowler of the 1870s. He played in th ...

no bowler ever took so many wickets in a season as Hillyer's 174 in 1845 - his nearest rival,

Jemmy Dean James "Jemmy" Dean (4 January 1816 – 25 December 1881) was an English first-class cricketer with professional status. Mainly associated with Sussex, he is recorded in 305 matches from 1835 to 1861 which are designated first-class by ''Crick ...

, had taken 100. He took most first-class wickets in English cricket in each season from 1842 to 1849. As a batsman Hillyer was more modest and he only reached 40 three times. Nonetheless, in by far his highest innings, Hillyer became the first player to accomplish the still-treasured feat of a "match double", scoring 26 and 83 and taking 13 wickets for

(MCC) against

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in 1847.Frindall, Bill (editor); ''The Wisden Book of Cricket Records'' (Fourth Edition); pp. 317-320. He had first played for the Town Malling club and was employed as a professional by

(MCC) at

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 ...

between 1838 and 1851, playing regularly in

Gentlemen v Players Gentlemen v Players was a long-running series of English first-class cricket matches. Two matches were played in 1806, but the fixture was not played again until 1819. It became an annual event, usually played at least twice each season, exc ...

matches during the period. From 1850 onwards, Hillyer began to decline badly, suffering from

rheumatism Rheumatism or rheumatic disorders are conditions causing chronic, often intermittent pain affecting the joints or connective tissue. Rheumatism does not designate any specific disorder, but covers at least 200 different conditions, including art ...

and, beginning in 1852, he began to

umpire An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per'', ...

as was normal practice with professional players of the day. He fell and broke his thumb in 1855 which forced his retirement as a cricketer. He died at

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 1861, aged 47.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hillyer, William 1813 births 1861 deaths All-England Eleven cricketers English cricketers English cricketers of 1826 to 1863 Kent cricketers Surrey cricketers North v South cricketers Players cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Gentlemen of Nottinghamshire cricketers Cambridge Town Club cricketers Fast v Slow cricketers Gentlemen of Kent cricketers