Career
Hillyer first played for Kent in 1834, at a time when scores were exceedingly low due to the roughness of pitches, which were kept short by sheep and rolled if at all only with a light roller. Playing in an era when round-arm bowling had taken over from underarm but before overarm bowling was legalised, Hillyer bowled a little above medium pace from a shuffling run with a beautifully simple delivery, and was tremendously difficult due to his gain of pace off the pitch, ability to make the ball come with his arm (from leg to off) and constant shooters which bowled many batsmen. Although few bowling data were kept in Hillyer"s early career, by the tail end of the 1830s he was already established as one of the leading bowlers.
He took the most first-class wickets in English cricket in each of eight consecutive first-class seasons from 1842 to 1849, spanning the era from the decline of Alfred Mynn and William Lillywhite up to the emergence of John Wisden in 1850.
As a batsman Hillyer was of modest account: although the exceedingly low scores of the period (a mere twelve centuries and not one score of 150 were hit in over four hundred and fifty first-class matches spanning Hillyer"s career) must be taken into account, Hillyer reached forty only three times. From 1850 onwards, Hillyer began to decline badly, although he was never easy to handle, and beginning in 1852, he took to umpiring as was normal practice with professional players of the day.
He died in 1861 – the same year as his more famous contemporary Mynn.