Maurice Hill (cricketer)

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Maurice Hill (born September 14, 1935) was an English cricketer. He was a right-handed batsman and leg-break bowler.

For the first twelve years of Hill's career, the Scunthorpe native played for Nottinghamshire. His debut in the County Championship came against Hampshire in July 1953, though he was not to play another first-class match until 1956. Hill's return to the game was highly acceptable, as he finished just short of a half century on his comeback, and helped Nottinghamshire to an acceptable eighth-placed finish in the County Championship.

The following season saw him become a fixture in the first-team, though Nottinghamshire's form faltered, and they finished third-bottom for the season. Worse things were to come, as they rooted themselves to the bottom of the table in the two seasons immediately afterward, despite Hill maintaining a quality average throughout these unsteady years.

Hill continued to play continuously through from 1963 to 1965 for Nottinghamshire, and, having performed well in the season leading to Nottinghamshire's bottom-placed 1965 finish, Hill found himself on the move, to an in-form Derbyshire side. Given the chance to pull on the chocolate, amber and blue for the first time at the start of the 1966 County Championship, Hill performed well in the middle order, despite the young team merely stuttering towards a low-scoring victory against Surrey. The team finished 1966 well, and Hill was to find himself a first-choice team-member throughout.

1967 brought problems, however, as a lack of form brought only seven first-class appearances, and an average of just 11, despite maintaining his position in the middle-order. Following this, Hill took a three-year hiatus from first-team cricket and didn't appear again until given a contract by Somerset in 1970, for whom he appeared for a single season, before leaving the game.

Throughout his career, Hill was an upper-middle-order batsman. Hill's son, Greg, played List A cricket for Devon and Second XI cricket for, amongst other teams, Derbyshire, in the early 1990s.

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