posted by John Winn
Harold Heygate 'who died at Guildford on June 27th (1937) aged 53, was in the Epsom College XI and played occasionally for Sussex in 1903 and 1905. A sound stylish batsman he opened at Tonbridge against Kent in 1905 by scoring 80 and in the second innings made 68 not out.' Thus reads the Wisden obituary for a cricketer who is best remembered, if he is remembered at all, for what he did not do rather than for what he did.
In using the word 'occasionally' to describe Heygate's appearances for Sussex Wisden avoids any accusations of hyperbole for he appeared but twice in both of those seasons. In 1903 in matches at Hastings against Somerset and New Road against Worcestershire his scores were 26, 0, 0 and 10. Two years later things were better, for his performances against Kent and against Somerset at Hove pushed him up to second in his county's batting averages. Flushed with this success Harold then moved to Canada and from 1907 to 1909 Cricket Archive records him playing for Ottawa and the Canadian national side.
If we restrict the search to first class cricket then Heygate played one match in addition to his championship appearances, this was against Cambridge University at Hove in June 1905 when opening the batting he scored 0 and 2 and it is fourteen years later that he makes his final appearance, at Taunton in 1919. In the meantime Heygate has fought in the Great War during which he was wounded in the leg. To make matters worse by 1919 he was crippled by rheumatism but in spite of these handicaps he found himself on the team sheet when Sussex travelled to Taunton for their first championship match after the war, a two day match as were all games in the competition that season, an experiment yet to be repeated. He was one of 36 players used by Sussex that season.
Reports of this match, in which fourteen of the players were amateurs, are not hard to find, for example in the official histories of the two counties involved, in Stephen Chalke's wonderful 'Summer's Crown' and of course Wisden. All of these focus on HJ Heygate's part in proceedings although oddly in the Sussex book Harold is confused with his brother Reginald. Somerset batted first and after a good start from the Rippon twins were all out for 243. Heygate fielded throughout the innings or more accurately limped. Normally an opener he came in at number eleven and was bowled for nought but thanks to 69 from debutant Maurice Tate, Sussex were only one run behind on first innings.
Second time around Somerset were bowled out for 103, Harold's place in the field was taken by a Taunton club player, leaving Sussex needing 105 to win and after a bad start they found themselves on the brink of victory at 103 for 6 at which point they lost three wickets for one run to leave the scores tied with our hero not expected to bat. Believing this to be the case the bails were removed but after a lengthy interval Harold appeared at the pavilion gate, padded up but wearing a serge suit, thought to have been blue in colour. At this point a Somerset player, Len Braund, raised the issue of time and umpire Street declared the match over. MCC later confirmed Street's decision as the correct one. This tie was the nearest Sussex came to winning a match until they beat Yorkshire at Harrogate in August. Heygate lived another 18 years but there is no record of him playing anymore cricket.
Let us leave the last word to Wisden in this extract from their report on the match. 'Whether or not Heygate would have been able to crawl to the wicket it was very unsportsmanlike that such a point should have been raised when there was ample time to finish the match.'
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