Lives in Cricket No 23 - Brief Candles

52 T.J.Hearne spent his later years as a groundsman and cricket coach at Bryanston School, but died six weeks before he would have turned 60. His death was unrecorded in Wisden at the time; but his unusual first-class career finally earned him the distinction of a Wisden obituary 47 years later, in the serendipitous ‘Supplementary Obituaries’ published in 1994. Two more Englishmen Although Jos Coulthurst, Percy Herbert and T.J.Hearne are the only cricketers to ‘appear but not appear’ in their only first-class matches in England, one and quite probably two of the others ‘never seen’, as named in the list at the start of this chapter, are English by birth. Little is known about the background, or even the name, of W.Hunt , who earned his claim to fame in a two-day match at Nicetown in Philadelphia that started on Independence Day in 1882. Efforts to find out more have unfortunately fallen on stony ground. Only 47.1 four-ball overs were possible in this game because of rain, in which time Hunt never made it to the crease. He played a few other club games in Philadelphia around this time, without doing anything remarkable. He seems to have been mainly a batsman rather than a bowler, but beyond that I cannot go. In his first- class match he was representing ‘English Residents’ against ‘American Born’, so presumably he was of English birth. About 3,000 boys christened Walter or William Hunt, with or without middle names, were registered in England and Wales between 1845 and 1865, the most likely period for the birth of ‘our’ W.Hunt. Identifying which one was the cricketer is a task too far for the present book. Or maybe he was a Wilfred, or a Wilbur, or even a Wayne, or … If Hunt’s birthplace was probably in England, that of Hemish Ilangaratne certainly was. He was born in Derby on 25 July 1987 and has played club and county cricket in Hertfordshire for several years, including county age-group cricket since the age of 12. A stylish right-handed batsman, usually an opener, and very occasional right-arm medium-pace bowler, he has represented Hemel Hempstead regularly in the Home Counties Premier League since his first game in 2003, when he was still only 15 years old: in 2011 he was the club’s first-team captain. He has also appeared occasionally for Hertfordshire in the Minor Counties Championship. His surname indicates a Sri Lankan family origin, and in the records in CricketArchive he has featured in just one match, of any description, in that country. This was his one and only first-class match, in which he turned Never Seen Hemish Ilangaratne going out to bat for Hemel Hempstead in July 2011.