Clem Hill's Reminiscences

associated. They then added 165 for the seventh wicket with Hill’s share being 118. Hill batted just over five hours for his runs. Hill added three more hundreds in his last four games against Victoria, New South Wales and the Englishmen again in their final tour game against South Australia. Hill enjoyed a consistent home season in 1898-99 with two centuries against New South Wales and another in the first of three games for an Australian XI against The Rest before departing on the tour. With the 1899 Australians, Hill was a major contributor to the 1-0 series win following his superb century in the Lord’s Test. Unfortunately illness after a throat operation, in early July, meant that he only played four games after that time yet he was still selected as one of the 1900 Wisden Cricketers of the Year. Hill led the Test batting averages with 60.20 from three games and was second to Darling in the overall tour averages. Only 21, he was Australia’s leading Test batsman. There were two full domestic seasons before the next English team arrived. In 1899-1900 Hill scored consistently, although there may have been doubts about his stamina following his illness. By the 1900-01 season, however, he put all such questions behind him, with his gargantuan innings of 365 not out in 515 minutes against New South Wales at Adelaide Oval. This feat, which dwarfed all others for the year, left him with an average of 103.33. Hill’s innings was at the time the highest score in first-class cricket in Australia, the first triple century in Australian cricket for eighteen years, and the first ever in the Sheffield Shield. The 1901-02 season saw Hill score 1,000 runs in Australia for the second time. Hill made one century and eight half-centuries although, with the addition of 11 runs, he could have converted those figures into five hundreds. In the Tests, Hill had another fine series with 521 runs at 52.10 even if his attempt to put aside nerves as a factor in his successive Test scores of 99, 98 and 97 are less than convincing. Hill lost precedence to Victor Trumper on the 1902 tour of England, and in his own mind he never regained it. On that tour, Trumper’s 2,570 runs at 48.79 with 11 centuries left Hill well behind with 1,534 runs at 31.95. In the Tests, though, Hill’s 258 runs at 36.85 placed him just above Trumper’s 247 at 30.47. Hill’s 119 at Sheffield and Trumper’s 104 at Manchester were the only Test hundreds by the tourists. Hill himself, led the Australian batting aggregates and averages with 342 runs at 81.75 in a brief tour of South Africa on the way home. He scored a match double of 76 and 142 (his fourth Test century) in the First Test in Johannesburg and 91 not out in the Third Test at Cape Town. The century was a brilliant match-saving innings as Australia trailed by 158 on the first innings and were forced to follow on. On the final morning Hill took his overnight score from 22 to 138 – his 116 then being a record for a session in a Test match – and put the result of the three day game beyond doubt. After the 1902 Australians arrived home, Hill had a modest season in 1902-03 with just a single century against Victoria in Melbourne. The 1903-04 season saw him off to a good start with centuries in the opening game against Pelham Warner’s English side and again against Victoria in Melbourne. Hill’s batting Introducing Clem Hill 8