Solomon Hardy was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 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...

er who played first-class cricket

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...

 for 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...

 in 1898.

Hardy was born at Ilkeston

Ilkeston

Ilkeston is a town within the Borough of Erewash, in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the River Erewash, from which the local borough takes its name. Its population at the 2001 census was 37,550...

, Derbyshire

Derbyshire

Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...

 and was a coal miner when living with his widowed mother at Ilkeston in 1881.

Hardy represented Derbyshire in one game during the 1898 season

Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1898

Derbyshire Country Cricket Club in 1898 was the cricket season when the English club Derbyshire had been playing for twenty-seven years. It was their fourth season in the County Championship and they won three matches to finish ninth in the Championship table.-1898 season:Derbyshire played...

 when he kept wicket against Essex

Essex County Cricket Club

Essex 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 Essex. Its limited overs team is called the Essex Eagles, their team colours this season are blue.The club plays most of its home games...

. Derbyshire lost the match by a very large margin as the Essex batsmen notched up two centuries and two scores in the 90s before Hardy ended two of their innings with catches behind the stumps. Hardy, a right-handed batsman, put on ten runs for the team.

Hardy died in Ilkeston aged 68.