George Hay

Who was George Hay?

George Hay was an English cricketer who played for Derbyshire between 1875 and 1886.

Hay was born at Staveley and became a professional cricketer playing at Manningham, Bradford from 1873 to 1875. His debut season for Derbyshire in the 1875 season 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 in the 1876 season. In 1877 Hay was playing professionally for Eland and played just one first-class match for Derbyshire in the 1875 season, scoring 31 not out, the highest score of his career thus far.

Hay was back with Derbyshire in the 1878 season, 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. In the 1879 season Hay put in fewer games for Derbyshire as he was playing for Keighley.