Alan Hilder

Alan Lake Hilder (8 October 1901 – 2 May 1970) was an English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Kent, the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and amateur sides in 21 matches between 1924 and 1930.^[1][2] He was born in Beckenham, then part of Kent but now part of London, and died at St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex.

Hilder was a right-handed middle-order batsman and a bowler, though his bowling style is not known. He was educated at Lancing College where he headed the batting averages in 1920.^[3] After matches for Kent's second eleven in both 1920 and 1924, he made his first-class debut in the match against Essex in June 1924 and in the second innings he scored an unbeaten 103, putting on 157 in about 75 minutes for the eighth wicket with Charlie Wright, which stood as the Kent record for that wicket until 2007.^[4] After this, Hilder played in a few matches in most of Kent's seasons through to 1929, but was wholly unable to repeat his success, not passing 25 in any of his 13 further matches.^[1] He has a little more success with the bat on tours of Jamaica with mostly amateur teams under Lionel Tennyson in 1926–27 and 1928–29, but did not reach 40 in any first-class innings on these tours; 10 of his 13 first-class wickets also came in Jamaican matches.^[1] After a single match for MCC in 1930, he did not play first-class cricket again, though he was featuring in Kent teams in non-first-class matches as late as 1945.^[1]

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