Leiut-Col Christopher Heseltine, OBE, DL, JP, President of Hampshire County Club and in several years a member of the MCC Committee, died on June 13, at Lymington, aged 74. He failed to get a place in the Eton eleven and, going up to Trinity Hall, did not find favour at Cambridge in the cricket field, but played in the Association football eleven against Oxford in the winter of 1891. He began county cricket when Hampshire were second-class, and was 27 years old before making a name as a fast bowler in the best company. Fully utilising his height, he brought the ball over at the extreme extent of his arm with deadly effect at times, but he was inconsistent and required careful nursing because apt to tire. He showed to most advantage in 1897 when he took 41 wickets at 17.12 apiece, his best performance being in a drawn game with Surrey at Southampton, nine wickets falling to him for 61 runs. Among his victims was Robert Abel without scoring in each innings. In July next year at Portsmouth, Heseltine again dismissed Abel for nought, the famous Surrey professional thus failing three times in succession when facing the Hampshire express. He went to India, South Africa and West Indies with teams captained by Lord Hawke. Joining the Imperial Yeomanry, he saw active service in the South African campaign, and in the last European war, when in the Royal Fusiliers, he was twice mentioned in dispatches.
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack