Clem Hill's Reminiscences

Hill’s consistency was that two-thirds of his innings in Tests produced double figures. An aggregate of 2,660 runs against England, when England was Australia’s only true competitor, has only been surpassed by Bradman, Allan Border and Steve Waugh to this day. This is why Hill still ranks highly whenever places are discussed in best-ever Australian teams. In a choice for left-hand top or middle-order batsmen only Neil Harvey and Border would vie for places with him. In Hill’s 87 Test innings he batted at number three in 61 of them, holding the position almost continuously from his second series in 1897-98 until his retirement. From reports, and notwithstanding his captain Joe Darling’s comments on his shortcomings on sticky wickets – the same was said of Bradman – he appears to been an aggressive player with a full range of shots, plus several of his own, who looked to dictate to the bowling but maintained an impregnable defence. At 5 feet 9 inches and of stocky build, perhaps the player he would most resemble in the modern game would be fellow South Australian Darren Lehmann, the leading run scorer in Australian domestic cricket, but sadly under-utilised at Test level. Aside from his batting Hill was a brilliant outfielder with a strong throwing arm and bold was the batsman who was prepared to take on the challenge of a Hill return. Outside cricket Hill was brought up in comfortable surroundings. Although he undertook an apprenticeship in engineering in the government railway workshops in the Adelaide suburb of Islington, there is no evidence of his employment in that trade, and horse racing gave him his other career. On his retirement from cricket he became a stipendiary steward with the South Australian Jockey Club (SAJC) and later a handicapper. In 1937, at the age of 60, he was appointed handicapper to the Victorian Amateur Turf Club at Caulfield in Melbourne. He resigned in 1943 because of ill-health, but subsequently became handicapper to the Geelong Racing Club, Victoria. In the winter of 1945 Hill fell from a tram in Collins Street, Melbourne and he died on 5 September 1945 in the Royal Melbourne Hospital although the two incidents are not necessarily connected. Hill’s body was returned to Adelaide and he was buried at the North Road Cemetery, Collinswood on 8 September, alongside Florence and an infant son, Clement John, who had pre-deceased him. There were ironies in Clem Hill’s life and death. For a man born into a large Victorian family and whose cricket developed due to his father’s enthusiasm for the game, coupled with sibling rivalry, his only son died aged 14 months and neither of his daughters, Lesley or Brenda, married. He also picked a bad time to die. Due to wartime austerity measures and restrictions on newsprint Hill received only a tiny report of his funeral in the Adelaide Advertiser While it noted that many sporting bodies, including the South Australian Cricket Association and metropolitan racing clubs, were represented, the only people singled out for mention were the chairman and secretary of the SAJC and the secretary of the Adelaide Racing Club. No cricketers or cricket officials were named. Introducing Clem Hill 12