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I see that he played one match for Exeter College, Oxford in 1859 and one more the following year. That suggests that he was probably a student there. (Though in 1861, he played two matches for Rugby School, which is rather confusing.) It doesn't look like he was a very good cricketer at that time, if he played only two matches for Exeter College (though it's possible that he played more and the scorecards haven't survived) and none at all for OU. JH (talk page) 21:48, 22 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Looking at the article for the other William Collyer, it says: "He was educated at Rugby School before going up to Caius College, Cambridge. He played cricket for his school in 1861." So I'm wondering CA, in the list of matches played by William Collyer (Surrey cricketer), may have mixed up the two players. JH (talk page) 22:05, 22 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, I suspect the Rugby matches are probably an error in CAs scorecards but haven’t looked at the actual scorecards yet. It does feel that way. I’ll try and look at the Oxford alumni sources later. I presume that he’d be an amateur to have captained Surrey so OA might turn up something there. Blue Square Thing (talk) 22:47, 22 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Got him at Oxford. Rather annoyingly he was also a lawyer which will make finding anything helpful in newspapers somewhere between very difficult and nearly impossible I guess - can't find a death notice at all. I wonder if dying in Belgium might explain part of the lack of coverage? Or whether Wisden also got the two of them muddled? Blue Square Thing (talk) 23:42, 22 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Given that they died twenty years apart makes it seem less likely that Wisden would have muddled them. If he had been living in Belgium for some time rather than died when on holiday there, then as you suggest that might explain his death not having been widely known at the time. A search on "Wiiliam Collyer Bruges" revealed that his wife also died in Bruges, but in September 1903, i.e. five years earlier. So it looks like they had been living there for some time. JH (talk page) 09:58, 23 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]