CLEM HILL

'Clement (Clem) Hill', born March 18, 1877, in Hindmarsh, Adelaide, South Australia and died September 5, 1945, in Parkville, Melbourne, Victoria) was a cricketer who played for South Australia and in 49 Test matches for Australia.
Along with his near contemporary Victor Trumper, Clem Hill was the mainstay of the Australian batting line-up in the so-called "golden age" of cricket from the mid-1890s almost to the First World War. A left-handed batsman, normally batting at No 3, Hill was a fixture in the Australian Test team from 1896 to 1912, and was captain in his last two series.
From a strong cricketing family — his father made the first century at Adelaide Oval — Hill scored 360 at the age of 16 in a college match in Adelaide, and hit an undefeated 150 against Andrew Stoddart's 1894-95 MCC team for South Australia when just 18.
Hill toured England four times, in 1896, 1899, 1902 and 1905. His first tour brought him into the Test side, and he cemented that place with an innings of 188 at Melbourne in the 1897-98 series, an innings that allowed Australia to recover from 58 for six wickets to win the match. His seventh wicket stand of 165 with Hugh Trumble remains a record for Australia against England.
In 1899, he and Trumper each scored 135 at Lord's, and Australia's victory by 10 wickets was the only decisive result of the rubber. He was the heaviest run-scorer when Australia retained The Ashes in 1901-02, and played consecutive innings of 99, 98 and 97 in the Tests.
In 1902, he was best remembered for a spectacular piece of fielding. At Old Trafford, England needed eight runs for victory with two wickets to spare when Dick Lilley hoisted a huge hit towards the square leg boundary. Hill sprinted from long-on and held the catch; Australia won the match by three runs. Hill also scored 119 in the victory at Sheffield, in the only Test ever played on the ground.
More than 10 years after his Test debut, Hill was still making records. Suffering from flu and batting down the order, he hit 160 against MCC at Adelaide in 1907-08, sharing an eighth wicket partnership with Roger Hartigan that realised 243 runs, which is still an Australian Test record. And his own highest Test score was 191 against South Africa in 1910-11 at Sydney.
Hill's Test career ended in controversy. As captain of the Australian team against the MCC side captained by Johnny Douglas in 1911-12, he was involved in a fracas with a Test selector, Percy McAlister, which led to a power struggle between the Australian Board of Control and the players and resulted in a largely untried team being selected for the 1912 tour to England and the Triangular Tournament.
In all Tests, Hill scored 3,412 runs at an average just under 40 runs per innings, and including seven centuries. He remains ninth on the all-time list of run-scorers in Ashes Tests.
Prolific in Australian state cricket too, Hill scored 6,274 runs in 68 Sheffield Shield matches, a record that stood until Donald Bradman. His highest score was an unbeaten 365 for South Australia against New South Wales in 1900-01.
Hill was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1900.

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See also

See also

★ Cricinfo Article on Clem Hill