William Ayling was an English professional 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 made 22 known appearances in major cricket matches from 1800 to 1810; followed by a further 3 in 1825 and 1826.

Career

Ayling was mainly associated with Kent

Kent county cricket teams

Kent county cricket teams have been traced back to the 17th century but the county's involvement in cricket goes back much further than that. Kent, jointly with Sussex, is the birthplace of the sport...

 but latterly played for his native Sussex. He played for the Players in the inaugural and second 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...

matches in 1806.