Club in 1886. Although initially quite successful, he soon thereafter realized he had great difficulties to compete on a first-class level. Consequently, from 1887 to 1890 he virtually retired, blaming his time at the Navy which allegedly had prevented him from practising more. However, in 1891, he took cricket up again and played some first-class matches for the MCC as well as the Gentlemen Players. Later that year, he participated in a trip of English cricketers to North America led by Lord Hawke in winter 1891/92. There, Hillyard played both first-class matches at Philadelphia. In 1894, Lord Hawke arranged another trip to North America, and Hillyard was again member of the party. At Philadelphia, he played in front of an audience of 10,000. Upon his return, Hillyard occasionally played cricket for another two years, making a total of 49 first-class matches in his career. After 1896, he fully committed himself to tennis. Thorpe Satchville Hillyard and his wife lived at Leicestershire from at least 1893. In 1896, they moved into a large house with extensive grounds at Thorpe Satchville, a small village near Leicester. The mansion provided nine bedrooms as well as two tennis courts and a nine-hole golf course. The Hillyards frequently hosted popular house parties with tennis champions such as Norman Brookes, Harold Mahony, Anthony Wilding, May Sutton, Violet Pinckney and Dora Boothby as guests. Until 1914, almost every strong foreign player who played at Wimbledon stayed at the home of the Hillyards. Secretary of the AEC, En-tout-cas Hillyard, a long-time member of the All England Club along with his wife, was its secretary from 1907 to early 1925. One of his major concerns was the upkeep of the courts, and he insisted on high standards of court maintenance. In 1910, the club purchased a motor roller for the courts in order to replace the horse roller. With the success of the Wimbledon tournament, the necessity to move the ground from his initial location at Worple Road to a larger site became obvious. This had been discussed as early as Hillyard became secretary in 1907, but searching for a better suitable site took time, and the outbreak of World War I further postponed the issue. From 1914 to 1918, Hillyard rejoined the Navy, leaving it with the rank of commander. After the war, the decision to build a new ground was confirmed in 1919. The new site was