Gervys Rignold Hazlitt – A Scholarly Cricketer
Parramatta District Cricket Club | June 19, 2026
Gervys ‘Gerry’ Hazlitt was born on 4th September 1888 at Balmain in Sydney and died 30th October 1915 at Parramatta. Never having a robust constitution, he died of heart disease at the young age of 27 years whilst walking in the grounds of The Kings School where he was employed as a School Master.
A gifted scholar he was considered very unlucky to miss being awarded a ‘Rhodes Scholarship’ in 1908 - many pundits of the time thought he was certain to win.
Career Statistics:
- Tests - 9 matches, 89 runs @ 11.12 (H.S. 34*), 23wickets @ 27.08 (B.B. 7/25)
- First-class - 57 matches, 876 runs @ 12.69 (82*), 188 wickets @ 26.09 (B.B. 7/25).
- Test debut - 1907 at 19-years-of-age.
The tall, slim Gervys Hazlitt was a clever right-arm medium-fast off-spin bowler with a jerky action who deceived batsmen by appearing to make the ball wobble in its flight and could spin the ball sharply off the pitch – he was a useful lower-order batsman and first-rate fieldsman, especially in the slips – he was regarded as a wholehearted trier.
Although born in Sydney, the son of a celebrated Australian Actor James Woods Hazlitt, Gervys was raised and educated in Victoria. He was ushered into Sheffield Shield cricket by Victoria in 1905/06 at just 17-years-of-age and still a school student, as a result of topping the Melbourne Cricket Club’s 1st grade bowling averages in 1904/05 with 29 wickets @ 7.79, followed by 57 wickets @ 11.22 in 1905/06. He was hailed as a potential future champion all-rounder provided, he could physically outgrow his lingering health fragility issues.
Hazlitt played 16 first-class matches for Victoria between 1905/06 and 1910/11 – capturing 53 wickets @ 35.57 (B.B. 5/80) and making 433 runs @ 17.32 (H.S. 82*). He transferred to NSW in 1911 after accepting a teaching post at The Kings School Parramatta. His best bowling effort for NSW was 7/95 against English tourists shortly before his Test recall in 1911/12.
Due to his immense early promise as a bowler, he was first chosen to play Test cricket as a raw 19-year-old against England in the First Test of the 1907/08 series in Melbourne. In his debut Test despite being under-used with the ball he displayed fine fighting qualities making 18* in the 1st innings, and then in a very tense finish he made 34* in the 2nd innings and shared a match-winning unbroken 9th wicket partnership of 56 runs in 39 minutes with tail-ender Albert Cotter. He played the next Test in that series and then disappeared from the international stage – although most media pundits consider him most unlucky not to make Australia’s 1909 U.K. tour. Whilst playing for Central Cumberland he once again won international recognition when he was selected for the Fifth Test v. England in 1911/12 – taking 3/75 & 1/52 – subsequently he was chosen for Australia’s 1912 Triangular Test series (England and South Africa) tour to England. In the Third Test he experienced his greatest cricketing moment; in England’s second innings he was devastating grabbing 7/25 – including 5 wickets for 1 run.
He was highly successful on the tour and in all matches he bowled a massive 805 overs to capture 101 wickets @ 18.96. The toll of this tour’s workload is thought to have been a contributing factor to his shock death at just 27 years of age a couple of years later.
Gervys Hazlitt linked up with Central Cumberland in the 1910/11 season – a natural occurrence when you consider in those days the Kings School where he was teaching stood directly across the road from Parramatta Oval, and that the Headmaster Rev. P.S. Waddy was a former Cumberland player whose brothers Rev. Ernest and Edgar Waddy were current 1st players at that time.
His brief playing career with the historic two-blues club extended from 1910/11 to 1912/13 – after that a residential address change saw him play for Western Suburbs.
His Cumberland statistics were:
- Batting – 290 runs @ 20.71 (H.S. – 67).
- Bowling – 76 wickets @ 14.41(B.B. – 7/87).
In his first season with the club, he claimed the bowling aggregate and average with 22 wickets @ 12.45. In his initial game for Cumberland against Middle Harbour made a huge impression by securing 5/37 off 15 overs in the 1st innings and 3/5 in the 2nd and scored 67 runs with the bat.
The 1911/12 season saw him in top form, again topping the team’s wicket-takers – 35 wickets @ 16.70, including 6/55 v. Glebe, 6/72 & 3/19 v. North Sydney, 5/29 & 4/44 v. Gordon and 4/31 v. Petersham.
He only played three matches in the 1912/13 season but managed to capture 19 wickets @ 12.73 – 5/30 v. Waverley, 5/31 v. Balmain and 7/87 v. Sydney.
By Tom Wood – Parramatta District Cricket Club Historian
?
