George Hay (cricketer)

George Hay (January 28, 1851 — October 4, 1913) was an English cricketer. He was a right-handed batsman and a right-arm round-arm fast-medium bowler who played for Derbyshire between 1875 and 1886. He was born and died in Staveley.

Hay's debut season, 1875, saw him play in four county matches, his first, an innings victory over Kent, in which he took a five-wicket haul in the second innings, chosen ahead of the usual bowling pair of William Mycroft and William Hickton. He followed this up with two County matches the following year, though 1877 was rather quiet, Hay playing just one first-class match and scoring 31 not out, albeit the highest score of his career thus far.

Hay was back in the fold come 1878, still beating Hickton to the mantle of second-choice bowler, though now he had to shake competition off from John Platts, in the same position. Though he never played as often as he did during the 1878 season on any further occasions, Hay's round-arm bowling was at times preferred to John Platts' occasional deceptively-layered pace. Two years later, Derbyshire's first match of the season was against the touring Australians, fresh in their existence as a Test nation and with several young players at their disposal, despite being soundly dealt with by the classic bowling pair of Mycroft and Hay, the same treatment was dealt to the Derbyshire team, thanks to a second-innings eight-wicket haul from Fred Spofforth.

This, however, was to spur Hay on further as he would appear in eight county matches for the team during 1880, scoring more runs in this season than in any other of his career. 1881 was nearly as successful a period, Hay playing in six county matches, Derbyshire winning two.

From here on, Hay's appearances in first-class cricket became more sporadic - he would appear just five more times for the team within the next five years, before playing two final first-class matches in teams made up of a variety of players from all the major cricketing counties. After his retirement, Hay became a first-class umpire, taking charge of nearly 70 matches, including several in the early years of the County Championship.

Hay died at the age of 62.

External links

* [http://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/30/30072/30072.html George Hay] at Cricket Archive