Famous Cricketers No 55 - Arthur Milton

CLEMENT ARTHUR MILTON Clement Arthur Milton was born in Bristol General Hospital on 10th, March 1928, the son of William Clement and Violet May Milton. He has lived in Bristol all his life. He was educated at Hillfields Park Infants and Junior Schools from 1933 to 1939 and at Cotham Secondary School from 1939 to 1946. He can clearly remember the German bomber raids on Bristol during the Second World War. Cotham school was a regular breeding ground for Gloucestershire and England cricketers in the 1940’s and 1950’s: - other Old Boys include John Mortimore and David Allen, Gloucestershire and England off-spinners. Arthur Milton played for Cotham school at cricket, rugby and football and, in the summer he played cricket for Stapleton Cricket Club. He had a great natural ball game ability and, before he left school, had already attracted the attention of both Gloucestershire County Cricket Club and Arsenal Football Club. His sporting career was interrupted in October 1946 by his call up for National Service which he spent in the Army, being discharged in January 1949. It was whilst he was on National Service that he first appeared for Gloucestershire, playing in two matches in the 1948 season against Northamptonshire at Northampton and the Combined Services at Gloucester. In his second match and his third innings for the county he scored 58 not out, the first of 152 half centuries he was to make for Gloucestershire. He also took the first of his 79 wickets, taking 3-15 in the Services second innings and took his first catch. Milton played for Gloucestershire from 1948 to 1974 a total of 585 matches in which he played 1017 innings scoring 30218 runs at an average of 33.65. He scored 52 centuries and took no fewer than 719 catches. He also played in 12 Gillette Cup ties scoring 349 runs at an average of 29.08, 9 Benson and Hedges Cup games, scoring 133 runs, average 14.77, and 34 John Player League matches, scoring 613 runs at an average of 23.57. He was Gloucestershire captain in 1968 and their senior professional from 1961 until the end of his career. He started his career as a middle order (No 5) batsman, a shorer up of many an innings after the top of the order had failed. He had some sturdy support from the lower half of the Gloucestershire batting - from Andy Wilson, George Lambert and Colin Scott in the early part of his career, and later from Tony Brown, John Mortimore and David Allen. In the second phase of his career, he became an opening batsman forming successful partnerships with George Emmett and Martin Young. If the middle order was his best and preferred position, the move to opener was a good “career move” in terms of selection to the England side. In the 1950’s the England middle order was particularly strong with Peter May, Colin Cowdrey, Ted Dexter, Raman Subba Row and Milton’s county colleague Tom Graveney battling it out for the number 3, 4, and 5 positions. At opener it was a different matter. Since the retirement of the great Len Hutton in 1955 a number of opening partnerships had been tried but only Peter Richardson of Worcestershire had managed to establish himself as an opener as a result of consistent performances against Australia, South Africa and West Indies. For the first two Test matches, against the touring New Zealanders in 1958, Mike Smith of Warwickshire was selected to open with Richardson. Scores of 0, 7 and 47 in two easy England victories led the Selectors to cast their net further and they selected Arthur Milton to open with Smith in the Third Test at Headingley. In this match Smith made 3 but Milton, dropped off a half chance before he had scored, marked his Test debut by scoring 104 not out. This virtually assured him of a place on the tour of Australia in the winter of 1958/59. An interesting point about the Smith/ Milton combination is that both were double internationals, Smith having been capped by England at rugby and Milton at football. 4