Clem Hill's Reminiscences

Darling, doing so in 10 Test matches in the 1910-11 series against South Africa and that of 1911-12 against England. He was the youngest South Australian player at 16 years and 9 days, the second oldest at 47 years and 247 days, and had by far the longest career. In 1900 he made the highest Sheffield Shield score on Adelaide Oval, another record which stood at the conclusion of the Shield competition in the 1999-2000 season. His tally of 8,027 first-class runs at 53.16 for South Australia in 160 innings stood from 1923 until Les Favell passed it in 1967. Favell took 205 innings. If that was not enough, there is Hill’s off-field contribution to South Australian and Australian cricket and the influence of the Hill family to consider. Clem Hill was a South Australian selector in six separate stints between 1897 and 1926. He was state coach in 1921-22; and a member of the South Australian Cricket Association (SACA) Ground and Finance Committee from 1922 to 1938. He was an Australian selector for all the home series between 1901 and 1912 and again in 1924-25; and for sides which toured England in 1902, 1909 and 1926. He was a delegate to the Australian Board of Control from 1908 to 1914, from 1924 to 1926 and from 1935 to 1938. Clement Hill was born at the family home in Grenfell Street in the centre of Adelaide on 18 March 1877, the third son of John and Rebecca Hill, into a household which would eventually comprise eight sons and eight daughters. John Hill made the first century on Adelaide Oval in 1878 and, as the manager of the coaching firm John Hill and Co., was the driver of the coach which had transported W.G.Grace and his party from Adelaide to Kadina on the penultimate game of his tour three years previously. Like Grace, Hill was bred into an atmosphere of cricket with father, mother, sons and daughters deeply interested in the game. John Hill was a vice-president of SACA for over 30 years, trustee from 1921 to 1926, a member of the Ground and Finance committee from 1898 to 1926, and a South Australian delegate to the Australasian Cricket Council in 1897. Five of Clem’s brothers – Percival (Peter), Arthur, Henry, Roy and Stanley (Solly) – represented South Australia. Another, Frank, captained East Torrens to a district club premiership. The sibling support as well as rivalry, together with John Hill’s practice of propping a door up in the middle of a paddock as a wicket at which to bowl fast under-arms, contributed to the formation of a precocious cricketing talent. Hill did not make any fantastic scores in his early days, although his father believed him to have special promise. In 1889 he went to Prince Alfred College and at 13 won his way into the first eleven. Here he held his own with the senior boys as a reliable scorer and smart wicket-keeper. During the Easter holidays in 1892, the college went to Melbourne, where they defeated the leading private schools. Hill had the highest batting average of 34. Eighteen months later, in the annual intercollegiate match against St. Peter’s College – the South Australian equivalent of Eton versus Harrow – he accomplished his first really remarkable feat which brought his name publicity beyond the borders of his own colony and known among the world’s list of cricket records. On that occasion Hill scored 360 out of 621 and retired so that Introducing Clem Hill 6