Roy Hill dies aged 88

Roy Hill, who in 1950 took the best-ever figures by an OC bowler, has died at the age of 88.

Hill, a brisk right-arm opening bowler, was in the OC side which played one of a handful of matches that summer, against the village on the Common – he smiled when he said that “if you owned a car, you were in the XI”. It had rained heavily overnight and Hill, opening the bowling, recalled the ball “dug in and went all over the place”. He ripped through the Cranleigh batting, taking 9 for 10 as they were bowled out for 41. He admitted that he should have had all ten but Cyril Suter, fielding in the gully, dropped the one man he didn’t dismiss. Suter then added insult to injury by removing the same batsman himself. Hill went on to make an unbeaten 35.

Hill was born in Forest Hill on November 19, 1919 and was in West at Cranleigh between 1933 and 1936. He was in the 1st XI in 1935 and 1936. After leaving he joined Beckenham with several other Cranleighans, including EW Swanton. He recalled a few years ago that Swanton, who had a reputation for pomposity, was called up in 1937 to play for Middlesex against one of the universities. Rather than tell his captain that he was unavailable, Swanton sent telegrams to all his team-mates to say he was unable to play as he had been summoned by his county. Hill was called up into the army at the time of the Munich Crisis in 1938, and served throughout the war, admitting that he “got knocked about a bit in ‘45”. Either side of the war he worked for the London Brick Company.