Lancashire player number 14 - Tennent, Hector Norman by Don Ambrose

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Player:

HN Tennent

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Lancashire 1865-70
Born 6.4.1842 Hobart, Van Diemens Land, Australia.
Died 19.4.1904 Hanover Square, London.

 

A member of the famous theatrical family. He was educated at Merchiston Castle, which he entered in 1857, and was a member of the cricket eleven in 1858 and 1859 and of the football (Rugby) fifteen 1858-59. When Mr. H.H.Almond, an assistant master, left to take up the head-mastership of Lorretto in 1860, he followed and finished his schooling there.

 

Brother of J.P.Tennent (Victoria 1877-79) and W.M.Tennent (Lancashire 1867).

 

Almost 5ft.10 inches tall and weighing 11 to 12 stone, he was a middle order right-hand batsman, who usually fielded at cover point or long leg. As a schoolboy he was an effective bowler.

 

On the 1st to 3rd August 1861he played for XXII of the Glasgow Caledonian Club against the England XI batting at number four in the first iinnings and scoring 11 and at number seventeen in the second when he scored 0.

 

He lived for a time on Merseyside, playing his club cricket for Liverpool from 1863 and in 1869-70 for Birkenhead Park.

 

However he was mostly in London and played regularly for the M.C.C. and I Zingari. On 7th August 1865 he played for Lancashire in their second first-class match, against Middlesex at Islington, batting at first wicket down and scoring 6 and 21. His only other match for the county was against Surrey at Old Trafford in May 1870.

 

He was a very fast sprinter, and on 23rd January 1872, at the amateur athletic grounds at West Brompton, for a large stake, he defeated W.N.Sadlier in a 100 yards race. He was timed at 10.4 seconds.

 

Later his cricket appears to have centred around the Canterbury Week, where, no doubt, he would have shown much interest in the productions of "The Old Stagers."

 

In 1878, the Australian tourists called upon him for assistance in their fixture with the Orleans Club at Twickenham.

 

At the time of the 1881 Census he was lodging at 8 Palace Street, Westminster, aged 37 and unmarried. Also present was Miss Mary Taylor, aged 19, a domestic servant, and another lodger, Francis Peter Gorvais, aged 20 born in Milan, a student of Cambridge University.

 

At the time of his death he was the Secretary of the Empire Theatre, Leicester Square.

 

(Article: Copyright © 2004 Don Ambrose)