[3][4] He is known to have played village cricket for sides in Kent and Sussex, including at Woodchurch, Lydd, Rolvenden and Rye,[a] and in 1867 top-scored for Ashford Cricket Club against the United South of England Eleven with 22 runs.
[b][4][5] The following season Hillyer was one of two Kent professionals who made their only appearances for the county side in first-class matches in a match against the Gentlemen of the Marylebone Cricket Club during the 1868 Canterbury Cricket Week.
[c] A major social occasion, matches such as this would usually be reserved for amateur players and it is thought that Hillyer and Thomas Tidy, the other Kent debutant, may have been drafted into the side as late replacements.
In his only first-class match Hillyer scored six runs in Kent's first innings and took a single wicket.
[1] This biographical article related to an English cricket person born in the 1840s is a stub.