Charles Hillyer (cricketer)

Charles Hillyer
Personal information
Born(1845-08-04)4 August 1845
Biddenden, Kent
Died4 October 1872(1872-10-04) (aged 27)
Woodchurch, Kent
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1868Kent
Only FC5 August 1868 Kent v Gentlemen of the MCC
Career statistics
Competition First-class
Matches 1
Runs scored 6
Batting average 3.00
100s/50s 0/0
Top score 6
Balls bowled 56
Wickets 1
Bowling average 34.00
5 wickets in innings 0
10 wickets in match 0
Best bowling 1/6
Catches/stumpings 1/–
Source: Cricinfo, 10 March 2017

Charles Hillyer (4 August 1845 – 4 October 1872) was an English cricketer. He played one first-class match for Kent County Cricket Club in 1868.[1][2]

Hillyer was born at Biddenden in Kent in 1845, the son of Charles and Eliza Hillyer (née Bean). His father was employed as a bailiff on a farm in the area and Charles was one of 11 children.[3][4] He is known to have played village cricket for sides in Kent and Sussex, including at Woodchurch, Lydd, Rolvenden and Rye,[a] and in 1867 top-scored for Ashford Cricket Club against the United South of England Eleven with 22 runs.[b][4][5]

The following season Hillyer was one of two Kent professionals who made their only appearances for the county side in first-class matches in a match against the Gentlemen of the Marylebone Cricket Club during the 1868 Canterbury Cricket Week.[c] A major social occasion, matches such as this would usually be reserved for amateur players and it is thought that Hillyer and Thomas Tidy, the other Kent debutant, may have been drafted into the side as late replacements. In his only first-class match Hillyer scored six runs in Kent's first innings and took a single wicket.[4]

Professionally Hillyer worked as a butcher and lived most of his life at Woodchurch. He married Sarah Chasmar in 1866; the couple had one son, also named Charles.[4] Hillyer died of tuberculosis at Woodchurch in 1872.[4] He was aged only 27.[1]

  1. ^ a b Charles Hillyer, CricInfo. Retrieved 10 March 2017.
  2. ^ Charles Hillyer, CricketArchive. Retrieved 12 May 2023. (subscription required)
  3. ^ Moore D (1988) The History of Kent County Cricket Club, p. 247. London: Christopher Helm. ISBN 0-7470-2209-7
  4. ^ a b c d e Carlaw D (2020) Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part One: 1806–1914 (revised edition), pp. 250–251. (Available online at the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. Retrieved 7 August 2022.)
  5. ^ a b Ashford v United South of England Eleven, Scorecard, CricketArchive. Retrieved 12 May 2023. (subscription required)


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