Mervyn Hill
Encyclopedia
Mervyn Llewellyn Hill played first-class
cricket
as a wicketkeeper and batsman for Somerset
between 1921 and 1932, and also appeared in matches for Glamorgan
and Cambridge University
. He was also a member of the MCC
team that toured India in 1926-27 and helped lay the foundation for India's entry into Test cricket
.
Hill was born at Llandaff
, Cardiff
, Wales
and died in Westminster
, London
.
cricketer Vernon Hill
, who had moved back to south Wales to practise as a lawyer in the late 1890s. Vernon Hill's own father, Sir Edward Stock Hill
, had a career that similarly straddled the Severn Estuary
, with business interests and his home in Cardiff, but acting as Member of Parliament
for Bristol South from 1886 to 1900. Mervyn's brother, Evelyn Hill
, played cricket for Somerset in 13 matches between 1926 and 1929.
and played in the 1920 and 1921 Eton v Harrow
cricket matches at Lord's as a lower-order right-handed batsman and wicketkeeper. In August 1920 he made his first-class cricket debut playing for a side called the "Gentlemen of England" against the Combined Services
also at Lord's: he was not out 0 at the end of the first innings having batted at No 11 and out for 0 when he batted at No 1 in the second innings. He made his county debut for Somerset in a single match against Sussex
in August 1921, scoring 1 and 0, and played another single match for Somerset in 1922, making 0 in his only innings against Leicestershire
. By this stage, in five first-class innings he had made only one run.
Lack of batting prowess was evident in his cricket career at Cambridge too: he went up to Cambridge University in the autumn of 1921, studying at Pembroke College
, and played in the Freshmen's trial match at the start of the 1922 cricket season, but made just one run in two innings. In 1923, he played in two trial matches and failed to score in all four innings (one of them not out). But he was given a single first-class match by Cambridge in 1923 and, after scoring his customary 0 (not out) in the first innings against Lancashire
, he proceeded to unprecedented heights in the second innings by making 2. In the middle of the 1923 season, he turned out in three matches for Glamorgan and though he continued to bat at No 10 or No 11, he made runs: against Nottinghamshire
he made 35, including 30 runs off two overs of bowling by fast bowler Frank Matthews
. In 1924, he played in four matches for Cambridge University without success, and also returned for two games to Somerset.
Hill played fairly regular first-class cricket for Somerset in only two seasons, 1925 and 1926. In 1925, he played in 18 matches for the county and was also picked for the Gentlemen v Players
game at The Oval
, sharing a last-wicket partnership of 48 with Gubby Allen
after Allen and Nigel Haig
had put on 193 for the ninth wicket. For much of the 1925 season, Hill batted at No 11 for Somerset, but elevation to No 10 in the match against Cambridge University at Bath brought him a personal best score of 46 and a share in a ninth wicket partnership of 103 that more than doubled Somerset's total.
Hill was the wicketkeeper for the match between Somerset and Surrey
in August 1925 when Jack Hobbs
first equalled and then beat W. G. Grace
's record of 126 first-class centuries. An article on the webswite www.cricinfo.com in 2008 says that Hill had the opportunity to stump Hobbs when the Surrey batsman had reached 97 in pursuit of his second century of the match: "He danced down the pitch, missed the ball but Mervyn Hill failed - or chose not to - complete the stumping."
The 1926 season was Hill's best with the bat and against Gloucestershire
at Taunton, batting at No 10, he hit 60 in "just over half an hour", with two sixes and 10 fours and including 18 off a single over from Charles Parker
. In the next match, against Hampshire
at Portsmouth, he did it again, making exactly 50 from the exalted position of No 9. And later in the 1926 season, though Hill had by then resumed his usual position at the end of the Somerset batting line-up, there was a third score of more than 50 – an innings of 53 that formed the bulk of a last-wicket partnership of 76 with George Hunt
in the match against Derbyshire
at Bath. The three 50s in 1926 were the only innings of more than 50 in Hill's career.
from October 1926 to February 1927. The tour was billed as a visit to India and Ceylon (Sri Lanka), but matches were also played in the territories now inside the borders of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar (Burma). The team was led by the former England captain Arthur Gilligan
and contained a mixture of Test and county standard players, both amateur and professional. Hill was one of two wicketkeepers: the other was George Brown
of Hampshire. Both wicketkeepers fell ill on the tour, and Hill played no matches for six weeks in the middle of the tour. Arthur Dolphin
of Yorkshire
who was coaching in India for the Maharaja of Patiala, was co-opted for some matches when neither Hill nor Brown was fit (as was Maurice Leyland
, also working for the Maharaja, to cover other illnesses). Hill played in little more than a third of the 26 first-class matches on the tour – some of them were of only two-days duration but only the single-innings games were not considered first-class – but stayed for the whole tour, which was rated a success by the MCC and was a factor that led to the entry of India into Test cricket.
, and Hill appeared in only three further first-class matches, one each in 1927, 1928 and 1932.
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
as a wicketkeeper and batsman for Somerset
Somerset County Cricket Club
Somerset County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Somerset...
between 1921 and 1932, and also appeared in matches for Glamorgan
Glamorgan County Cricket Club
Glamorgan County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the historic county of Glamorgan aka Glamorganshire . Glamorgan CCC is the only Welsh first-class cricket club. Glamorgan CCC have won the English County...
and Cambridge University
Cambridge University Cricket Club
Cambridge University Cricket Club is a first-class cricket team. It now plays all but one of its first-class cricket matches as part of the Cambridge University Centre of Cricketing Excellence , which includes Anglia Ruskin University...
. He was also a member of the MCC
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...
team that toured India in 1926-27 and helped lay the foundation for India's entry into Test cricket
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
.
Hill was born at Llandaff
Llandaff
Llandaff is a district in the north of Cardiff, capital of Wales, having been incorporated into the city in 1922. It is the seat of the Church in Wales Bishop of Llandaff, whose diocese covers the most populous area of South Wales. Much of the district is covered by parkland known as Llandaff...
, Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
and died in Westminster
Westminster
Westminster is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster, England. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, southwest of the City of London and southwest of Charing Cross...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
Family and background
Mervyn Hill's father was the Somerset and Oxford UniversityOxford University Cricket Club
Oxford University Cricket Club is a first-class cricket team, representing the University of Oxford. It plays its home games at the University Parks in Oxford, England...
cricketer Vernon Hill
Vernon Hill (cricketer)
Vernon Tickell Hill was a cricketer who made 140 first-class appearances for Somerset and Oxford University between 1891 and 1912. He first played for Somerset during their successful 1890 season. He made his top-score of 116 against Kent in 1898, sharing a seventh wicket partnership of 240 with...
, who had moved back to south Wales to practise as a lawyer in the late 1890s. Vernon Hill's own father, Sir Edward Stock Hill
Edward Stock Hill
Sir Edward Stock Hill, KCB, was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom who served as Member of Parliament for Bristol South from 1886 to 1900....
, had a career that similarly straddled the Severn Estuary
Severn Estuary
The Severn Estuary is the estuary of the River Severn, the longest river in Great Britain. Its high tidal range means it has been at the centre of discussions in the UK regarding renewable energy.-Geography:...
, with business interests and his home in Cardiff, but acting as Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for Bristol South from 1886 to 1900. Mervyn's brother, Evelyn Hill
Evelyn Hill
Evelyn Vernon Llewellyn Hill played first-class cricket for Somerset from 1926 to 1929. He was born at Cyntwell, Cardiff, Wales and died at Weston-super-Mare, Somerset.-Family and background:...
, played cricket for Somerset in 13 matches between 1926 and 1929.
Cricket career
Hill was educated at Eton CollegeEton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
and played in the 1920 and 1921 Eton v Harrow
Eton v Harrow
The Eton v Harrow cricket match is an annual cricket match between Eton College and Harrow School. It one of the longest-running annual cricket fixtures in the world. It is the last annual school cricket match played at Lord's Cricket Ground...
cricket matches at Lord's as a lower-order right-handed batsman and wicketkeeper. In August 1920 he made his first-class cricket debut playing for a side called the "Gentlemen of England" against the Combined Services
Combined Services cricket team
The Combined Services cricket team represents the British armed forces. The team played at first-class level in England for more than forty years in the mid-twentieth century. Their first first-class match was against Gentlemen of England at Lord's in 1920, while their last was against Oxford...
also at Lord's: he was not out 0 at the end of the first innings having batted at No 11 and out for 0 when he batted at No 1 in the second innings. He made his county debut for Somerset in a single match against Sussex
Sussex County Cricket Club
Sussex County Cricket Club is the oldest of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Sussex. The club was founded as a successor to Brighton Cricket Club which was a representative of the county of Sussex as a...
in August 1921, scoring 1 and 0, and played another single match for Somerset in 1922, making 0 in his only innings against Leicestershire
Leicestershire County Cricket Club
Leicestershire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the historic county of Leicestershire. It has also been representative of the county of Rutland....
. By this stage, in five first-class innings he had made only one run.
Lack of batting prowess was evident in his cricket career at Cambridge too: he went up to Cambridge University in the autumn of 1921, studying at Pembroke College
Pembroke College, Cambridge
Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college has over seven hundred students and fellows, and is the third oldest college of the university. Physically, it is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from almost every century since its...
, and played in the Freshmen's trial match at the start of the 1922 cricket season, but made just one run in two innings. In 1923, he played in two trial matches and failed to score in all four innings (one of them not out). But he was given a single first-class match by Cambridge in 1923 and, after scoring his customary 0 (not out) in the first innings against Lancashire
Lancashire County Cricket Club
Lancashire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Lancashire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1864 as a successor to Manchester Cricket Club and has played at Old Trafford since then...
, he proceeded to unprecedented heights in the second innings by making 2. In the middle of the 1923 season, he turned out in three matches for Glamorgan and though he continued to bat at No 10 or No 11, he made runs: against Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club
Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Nottinghamshire, and the current county champions. Its limited overs team is called the Nottinghamshire Outlaws...
he made 35, including 30 runs off two overs of bowling by fast bowler Frank Matthews
Frank Matthews
Frank Matthews was an English footballer who played at inside-forward for various clubs in the 1920s.-Football career:...
. In 1924, he played in four matches for Cambridge University without success, and also returned for two games to Somerset.
Hill played fairly regular first-class cricket for Somerset in only two seasons, 1925 and 1926. In 1925, he played in 18 matches for the county and was also picked for the Gentlemen v Players
Gentlemen v Players
The Gentlemen v Players game was a first-class cricket match that was generally played on an annual basis between one team consisting of amateurs and one of professionals . The first two games took place in 1806 but the fixture was not revived until 1819. It was more or less annual thereafter...
game at The Oval
The Oval
The Kia Oval, still commonly referred to by its original name of The Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, in the London Borough of Lambeth. In the past it was also sometimes called the Kennington Oval...
, sharing a last-wicket partnership of 48 with Gubby Allen
Gubby Allen
Sir George Oswald Browning "Gubby" Allen, CBE was a cricketer who played for Middlesex, Cambridge University, MCC and England. Australian-born, Allen was a fast bowler and hard-hitting lower-order batsman, who captained England in eleven Test matches...
after Allen and Nigel Haig
Nigel Haig
Nigel Esme Haig was a cricketer who played for Middlesex and England.Tall, stringy and deceptively frail in appearance, Haig played regularly from 1912 to 1934 as an amateur batsman who could open the innings or bat further down the order and as a tireless swing bowler somewhat above medium pace...
had put on 193 for the ninth wicket. For much of the 1925 season, Hill batted at No 11 for Somerset, but elevation to No 10 in the match against Cambridge University at Bath brought him a personal best score of 46 and a share in a ninth wicket partnership of 103 that more than doubled Somerset's total.
Hill was the wicketkeeper for the match between Somerset and Surrey
Surrey County Cricket Club
Surrey County Cricket Club is one of the 18 professional county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Surrey. Its limited overs team is called the Surrey Lions...
in August 1925 when Jack Hobbs
Jack Hobbs
Sir John Berry "Jack" Hobbs was an English professional cricketer who played for Surrey from 1905 to 1934 and for England in 61 Test matches from 1908 to 1930....
first equalled and then beat W. G. Grace
W. G. Grace
William Gilbert Grace, MRCS, LRCP was an English amateur cricketer who is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest players of all time, having a special significance in terms of his importance to the development of the sport...
's record of 126 first-class centuries. An article on the webswite www.cricinfo.com in 2008 says that Hill had the opportunity to stump Hobbs when the Surrey batsman had reached 97 in pursuit of his second century of the match: "He danced down the pitch, missed the ball but Mervyn Hill failed - or chose not to - complete the stumping."
The 1926 season was Hill's best with the bat and against Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire County Cricket Club
Gloucestershire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the historic county of Gloucestershire. Its limited overs team is called the Gloucestershire Gladiators....
at Taunton, batting at No 10, he hit 60 in "just over half an hour", with two sixes and 10 fours and including 18 off a single over from Charles Parker
Charles Parker
Charles Parker or Charlie Parker may refer to:*Charlie Parker, jazz musician*Charlie Parker , NDP MLA for Pictou West in Nova Scotia, Canada*Charlie Parker *Charlie Parker , English footballer...
. In the next match, against Hampshire
Hampshire County Cricket Club
Hampshire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Hampshire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1863 as a successor to the Hampshire county cricket teams and has played at the Antelope Ground from then until 1885, before moving to the County Ground where it...
at Portsmouth, he did it again, making exactly 50 from the exalted position of No 9. And later in the 1926 season, though Hill had by then resumed his usual position at the end of the Somerset batting line-up, there was a third score of more than 50 – an innings of 53 that formed the bulk of a last-wicket partnership of 76 with George Hunt
George E Hunt
George Edward Hunt was an English cricketer who played over 200 matches for Somerset County Cricket Club as a bowling all-rounder...
in the match against Derbyshire
Derbyshire County Cricket Club
Derbyshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the England and Wales domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Derbyshire...
at Bath. The three 50s in 1926 were the only innings of more than 50 in Hill's career.
MCC tour of India
Apart from the single Gentlemen v Players appearance, Hill's only taste of representative cricket came on an arduous tour of India made by the Marylebone Cricket ClubMarylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...
from October 1926 to February 1927. The tour was billed as a visit to India and Ceylon (Sri Lanka), but matches were also played in the territories now inside the borders of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar (Burma). The team was led by the former England captain Arthur Gilligan
Arthur Gilligan
Arthur Edward Robert Gilligan was an English cricketer who played for Cambridge University, Sussex, Surrey and England....
and contained a mixture of Test and county standard players, both amateur and professional. Hill was one of two wicketkeepers: the other was George Brown
George Brown (cricketer)
George Brown was an English cricketer who played in 7 Tests from 1921 to 1923. George Brown was born in Cowley, Oxfordshire, the son of Edwin Brown and Sarah Ann...
of Hampshire. Both wicketkeepers fell ill on the tour, and Hill played no matches for six weeks in the middle of the tour. Arthur Dolphin
Arthur Dolphin
Arthur Dolphin was an English first-class cricketer, who kept wicket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club between 1905 and 1927...
of Yorkshire
Yorkshire County Cricket Club
Yorkshire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Yorkshire as one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure....
who was coaching in India for the Maharaja of Patiala, was co-opted for some matches when neither Hill nor Brown was fit (as was Maurice Leyland
Maurice Leyland
Maurice Leyland , christened 'Morris Leyland', was an English cricketer who played 41 Test matches between 1928 and 1938 and proved himself one of the best left-handers of his generation....
, also working for the Maharaja, to cover other illnesses). Hill played in little more than a third of the 26 first-class matches on the tour – some of them were of only two-days duration but only the single-innings games were not considered first-class – but stayed for the whole tour, which was rated a success by the MCC and was a factor that led to the entry of India into Test cricket.
Later cricket career
The Indian tour marked virtually the end of Hill's cricket career. For the 1927 season, Somerset gave a full-time contract to the professional wicketkeeper, Wally LuckesWally Luckes
Walter Thomas "Wally" Luckes, born in Lambeth, London on 1 January 1901 and died at Bridgwater, Somerset on 27 October 1982, was a cricketer who played for Somerset....
, and Hill appeared in only three further first-class matches, one each in 1927, 1928 and 1932.