Famous Cricketers No 55 - Arthur Milton

The 1958/59 Australian Tour would have been a good one to miss. An ageing England side which had carried all before it since 1951 was up against a rejuvenated Australia led by arguably their greatest ever captain, Richie Benaud. The result was a 4-0 defeat in the Test series. Excuses could be offered. Some Australian bowlers had doubtful actions and England probably got the worst of some of the umpiring decisions. Milton played in two Test matches scoring 5 and 17 at Brisbane in the first and 8 in both innings at Sydney in the third. In other tour games he made one century and three fifties before being injured in the return game with Victoria at Melbourne and flown home. He was selected for the first two Tests of 1959 against India but scores of 9,14, and 3 led to his omission after that and this was the end of his Test career. Arthur Milton had so much natural ability that it made ordinary mortals, like myself, deeply envious. I remember him as a batsman, being a master of the “nudge for one” and he was one of the best judges of the quick single I have ever seen. Looking through the old Gloucestershire score books I was struck by the high percentage of singles in many of his major innings. He was always at his best in a crisis and preferred coming in at 30-3 rather than 300-3. In this respect his career statistics do not flatter him for he had no use for easy runs scored when the going was easy. He also suffered from playing for so long on pitches at Bristol which did not help fluent stroke play or encourage high scoring. For twenty-six seasons he was a consistent performer and only Hammond has made more runs for Gloucestershire; only Hammond and Dipper have made more centuries. Milton was a more than useful right arm medium paced bowler who took 79 wickets for the county including a haul of 5-64 against Glamorgan at Gloucester in 1950. Gloucestershire’s main bowling strength was in the spin department with Tom Goddard, Sam Cook, John Mortimore and “Bomber” Wells all top class bowlers. Milton snaffled many catches off these bowlers in the short leg area or in the slips. His career total of 760 catches has not been bettered by many and he made them all look so easy. It is ironic, therefore, that my outstanding memory of him as a fielder is of one he missed, a steepling skier offered by Ian Bedford of Middlesex at Gloucester in 1961 which would have won the game had it been held. Arthur, laughingly says that he felt safer in the Middlesex than the Gloucester dressing room after the match but anyone criticizing must have forgotten the 85 he scored in the second Gloucestershire innings, when he helped Ron Nicholls to drag the county back into a game in which they had been outplayed for a day and a half. He had also held three vital catches in the Middlesex second innings. His 719 catches for Gloucestershire are a county record by a long way. Arthur Milton must have liked playing at Taunton. His aggregate of 1490 runs, average 55.18, including seven centuries is outstanding. Altogether he scored 2753 runs against Somerset in the “derby” matches including ten hundreds. He liked playing at Trent Bridge, too, scoring three centuries there and averaging 44.78. He made hundreds against every county except Derbyshire. Against Glamorgan, Somerset and Worcestershire he took more than fifty catches. In all first class cricket he played 620 matches, his 1078 innings yielding 32150 runs at an average of 33.73. He scored 56 centuries with a highest score of 170 against Sussex at Cheltenham in 1965 and took part in 119 century partnerships including one of 315 for the first wicket with David Green, also against Sussex at Hove in the summer of 1968. He made 160 half centuries and took 760 catches including a haul of 63 in the 1956 season and two further season totals over 50. He made a century on his only appearance and in his one innings in the Players v Gentlemen match at Lord’s in 1958 against an attack consisting of Warr, Wheatley, Dexter, Marlar and Goonesena. It is surprising that he was not selected more often to play in this prestigious fixture. Overall, he was some player. Had Milton not excelled at cricket he would have more than made up for it on the football field. Joining Arsenal as an amateur in April 1945 he turned professional in July 1946. He made his debut in the reserve side in October 1946, just before his call up for National Service. Returning to Highbury in January 1949 he played for the reserve side until 1951 before making his Football League debut against Aston Villa in March 1951. He became the regular first team right winger at the start of the 1951/52 season and played so well that after only twelve League games he was chosen to play for 5