Lives in Cricket No 23 - Brief Candles

36 In the County Championship Balls Achievements 12 F.J.Hyland Hampshire v Northants, Northampton, 1924 did not bat or bowl 60 A.Judson Yorkshire v Kent, Sheffield, 1920 bowled 1 over for 5 runs 422 J.Coulthurst Lancashire v Northants, Manchester, 1919 did not bat, bowl or field 474 E.Wakelin Worcestershire v Essex, Bournville, 1910 scored 6 499 H.Longland Northants v Lancashire, Manchester, 1907 did not bat or bowl 541 A.J.Ricketts Somerset v Surrey, Taunton, 1936 did not bat or bowl Assessment and memories In terms of the questions raised at the start of this chapter, we have established that Fred Hyland’s appearance for Hampshire was entirely legitimate in terms of the qualification rules; that he most certainly had a respectable cricketing pedigree, though as a bowler rather than as a batsman as implied by the Who’s Who of Cricketers ; and that, equally certainly, he was not just making up the numbers on the team-sheet at Northampton. In addition, we must also conclude, sadly, that he cannot be regarded as a great unfulfilled talent at first-class level. He had one outstanding season at club level in 1923, and came into the Hampshire side the following year on the strength of a good performance in a trial match. But he was by now already in his thirties, and was not able to reproduce the same form consistently thereafter; and when, a few years later, he moved to Norfolk he was not able to force his way into their Minor Counties side, though admittedly at the time Norfolk already had a ‘varied and effective’ bowling attack, according to Wisden . So even if it hadn’t rained in Northampton in mid-June 1924, it seems most unlikely that that game would have been the start of a long and illustrious first-class career. So much for Fred Hyland, cricketer. But thanks to Mike Talbot-Butler, we also know a little more about him than just the bones of his life and his several careers: from Mike’s recollections we learn something of Fred Hyland the man. Mike knew him when he (Fred) was in his mid-50s, and remembers him as a man of about 5 ft 11 in and stockily built, with powerful, hairy arms. He found him easy-going and humorous: apparently he liked to pull Mike’s leg. Despite their age difference, he talked freely with Mike, speaking with what Mike assumed at the time to be a Hampshire accent, but which he acknowledges may well have been a Sussex rural accent. Although Fred talked happily about county cricket, he did not talk with Mike about his former involvement in it. (Although from his Northwich Guardian obituary and the article in the 2003 Hampshire Yearbook it seems that his family Of the Late Frederick J.Hyland, again