Bruce Hylton-Stewart

Who was Bruce Hylton-Stewart?

Bruce de la Coeur Hylton-Stewart played first-class cricket for Somerset and Cambridge University between 1912 and 1914.

Born at New Brighton and brought up also in Cheshire, where his father Charles Henry Hylton Stewart was a minor canon of Chester Cathedral. Hylton-Stewart was educated at Bath College. He was a right-handed lower or middle order batsman and a right-arm fast-medium bowler.

He first appeared in first-class cricket in the Somerset match against the South Africans in 1912, when he replaced the injured Harry Chidgey after the game had started. Two weeks later, he made his only appearance of the 1912 season for Cambridge University, and then from mid-July appeared fairly regularly for Somerset for the rest of the season. His batting was not successful, but he had one sensational day as a bowler, taking five wickets for three runs in 14 balls against Worcestershire at Stourbridge: these remained the best bowling figures of his first-class cricket career.

In 1913, Hylton-Stewart played 11 first-class matches, most of them in the second half of the season and all of them for Somerset. He took five wickets in an innings for a second time, this time five for 72 against Yorkshire at Park Avenue, Bradford. His batting improved as well, and he made his first score of more than 50, an unbeaten 72 against Sussex at Bath.