Lionel Hedges

Who was Lionel Hedges?

Lionel Paget Hedges, born 13 July 1900 and died 12 January 1933, was a cricketer whose feats as a schoolboy at Tonbridge School led him to be named, in 1919, as one of the Cricketers of the Year by Wisden. Hedges was one of five public schoolboys selected for their deeds in 1918 in the absence of first-class cricketers, because of the suspension of cricket during the First World War.

In fact, Hedges' record in 1919 was even better than the previous year: he scored 1,038 runs for Tonbridge, including scores of 193, 176 and 163 in schools matches.

Hedges had a limited cricket career after school. He played for Oxford University for three years from 1920, and also played for Kent. In 1921, he scored more than 1,000 first-class runs at an average of 34, but he never achieved such success again. He became a schoolmaster at Cheltenham College and so qualified by residence for Gloucestershire, but his record was modest and he did not play after 1929.

He died in 1933 at the age of 32 after contracting influenza.