Lionel Hedges

Lionel Paget Hedges (13 July 1900 – 12 January 1933) was an English amateur cricketer whose feats as a schoolboy at Tonbridge School led him to be named, in 1919, as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year.

Early life and education Hedges was born at Streatham in London in 1900. He attended Tonbridge School in Kent where he was in the school cricket team from 1916 to 1919. He was described as a "brilliant schoolboy batsman", captaining the team during his final year. He went on to an even better season in 1919, scoring a school record 1,038 runs, including scores of 193, 176 and 163.

Cricket career Hedges made his first-class cricket debut for Kent County Cricket Club in July 1919 against Middlesex at Maidstone in the 1919 County Championship. He went up to Trinity College, Oxford, later in the year and won a cricket Blue as a freshman in 1920, going on to play in three University matches and appear in 35 first-class matches for the University cricket team.

His final first-class match came in August 1929 and he gave up the Cheltenham captaincy at the end of the same season, playing less club cricket in 1930 and 1931 before appearing regularly again for Cheltenham in 1932.

Professional and private life Hedges worked as a school master at Cheltenham College from the autumn of 1924 until his death. He was an "accomplished amateur stage actor" and well known for his "exceptional personality". In 1931 he acted in the film Tell England.

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