Hearne Walter Image 1 Kent 1895

Description

Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire born Walter Hearne was a right-arm medium pace bowler who, similar to his brother Jack bowled with great accuracy and a pronounced off-break.

He made his first class cricket debut for Kent in 1887, playing six matches in what was described as a “trial” period and did not appear for the County again until 1890 before becoming a regular member of the Kent team only in 1894.

Most of Hearne’s first class cricket was played between 1892 and 1894. He took 15 wickets against Lancashire at Old Trafford in 1893 and in 1894 completed a hat-trick against the same side. During the 1894 season he took 116 first class wickets, 99 of them in County matches, including a series of three matches in July when he took 13-61 against Gloucestershire, 12-72 against Nottinghamshire and 13-98 against Surrey – a total of 38 wickets in three matches. His 166 wickets were taken at an average of 13.29 and followed returns of 93 and 46 wickets in the previous two seasons.

A knee injury had limited Hearne’s performances during 1893 to just six matches, and at the beginning of the 1895 season his knee failed and he was unable to play a firs -class match during the season although he was able to play in few non-first-class matches for M.C.C. during the summer. He seemed fit at the start of the 1896 season but in his third match of the season, against Yorkshire at Leeds his knee “gave way so badly” that he was forced to retire from cricket, surgery proving ineffective.

Hearne took on the role of official scorer for Kent after his retirement, retaining the post for the rest of his life. He scored in each Kent’s four County Championship winning sides between 1906 and 1913 and resumed the role after the First World War. When he died at Canterbury in Kent in 1925 aged 61, his cousin Alec Hearne took over the role of scorer.

In 55 first class matches his record with the bat was modest, recording a highest score of 34 not out at an average of 7.57. With the ball he took 273 wickets at 15.93 apiece with a best return of 8-40, 28 five wicket hauls and ten matches in which he took ten or more wickets.

He was the elder brother of the great Middlesex bowler J. T. Hearne who played for England in Test cricket whilst his older brother, Herbert Hearne, also played for Kent, and he was a member of the extended Hearne family.

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