William Hillyer — Kent's Fastest and Most Feared Roundarmer, 1840s

The roundarm era produced several fast bowlers — Mynn, Redgate, Jackson — but Hillyer was considered the most consistently hostile through the 1840-1850 period, particularly on hard summer pitches.

Hillyer was born in 1820 at Leybourne in Kent and made his first-class debut for the county in 1835, aged fifteen. By the early 1840s he was the fastest bowler in the Kent XI, delivering at a genuinely rapid pace from high in the roundarm action that had been standard since the law change of 1835. He bowled right-arm, kept a nagging line and length, and on the hard, uneven pitches typical of mid-Victorian grounds could be almost unplayable. His partnership with Mynn, who also bowled fast right-arm roundarm, gave Kent a hostile twin threat that was the envy of other counties; together they underpinned Kent's status as the dominant county through the late 1830s and early 1840s. Hillyer was an early member of William Clarke's All-England Eleven from its foundation in 1846 and toured extensively. He took 1,050 first-class wickets at 11.15, the joint-leading tally of the roundarm era. His batting was modest but useful in the lower order. Persistent shoulder trouble ended his career in 1853, when he was still only 33.

Hillyer's retirement left a gap in the Kent attack that was not filled until the emergence of a new generation. He died in 1861 at Leybourne, aged 40, recalled as one of the fastest bowlers the roundarm era had produced.