Grahame Selvey Clinton (born 5 May 1953) is a former English professional

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er. He was an opening batsman who played for

Kent County Cricket Club Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ken ...

from 1974 to 1978 and for

Surrey County Cricket Club Surrey County Cricket Club (Surrey CCC) is a first-class club in county cricket, one of eighteen in the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Surrey, including areas that now form South Londo ...

from 1979 to 1990.

Early life

Clinton was born at

Sidcup Sidcup is an area of south-east London, England, primarily in the London Borough of Bexley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, bordering the London Boroughs of London Borough of Bromley, Bromley and Royal Borough of Greenwich, Greenwich. It was ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

in 1953. He was educated at

Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School is a mixed sex education#UK, mixed-sex grammar school with Academy (English school), academy status located in Hurst Road (A222 road, A222), Sidcup in the London Borough of Bexley, England. It is located a ...

.Graeme Clinton

CricInfo ESPNcricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a Sports journalism, sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including Liveblogging, liveblogs and sco ...

. Retrieved 2017-04-17. He played cricket for the English Schools Cricket Association and England Young Cricketers from 1970 to 1972.Miscellaneous matches played by Graeme Clinton
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-04-17.

Cricket career

Clinton first played for

's Second XI in 1971 and made his

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

debut for the county against the touring

Pakistanis Pakistanis (, ) are the citizens and nationals of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Pakistan is the fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the second-largest Muslim population as of 2023. As much as ...

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

in July 1974.Graeme Clinton
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-04-17. He did not play again for the county until 1976 and, with the exception of 1977 when he made 18 first-class appearances, his opportunities for Kent were limited in a team which won the

1978 County Championship The 1978 Schweppes County Championship was the 79th officially organised running of the County Championship. Kent won the Championship title. Sussex and Glamorgan were both deducted six points after a breach of regulations. The Championship was ...

and

Benson & Hedges Cup The Benson & Hedges Cup was a one-day cricket competition for first-class counties in England and Wales that was held from 1972 to 2002, one of cricket's longest sponsorship deals. It was the third major one-day competition established in Engla ...

and shared the 1977 title.Coney S (2014
Where Are They Now? Kent 1978 County Champions and B&H Cup winners
''The Cricket Paper'', 2014-09-25. Retrieved 2017-04-17.Where are they now? Kent – Joint County Championship winners 1977
''The Cricket Paper'', 2015-11-03. Retrieved 2017-04-17. He joined

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

prior to the 1979 season having played 32 first-class and 10

List A List A cricket is a classification of the Limited overs cricket, limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competit ...

matches for Kent.Surrey part company with Clinton
''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', 1995-10-25. Retrieved 2017-04-17. At Surrey he immediately formed a successful opening partnership with

Alan Butcher Alan Raymond Butcher (born 7 January 1954) is a former English cricketer who is part of a family known for its strong cricketing connections. Although only selected to play for England on one occasion, he was lauded for his skills in first-cla ...

which lasted until the 1986 season when Butcher suffered a loss of form and was dropped down the order and then omitted from the side before being released by Surrey at the end of the season. Their first wicket stands included 277 against

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

in 1984, when Clinton made his highest score of 192, and 266 against

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

in 1980. Butcher and Clinton shared 19 century opening partnerships for Surrey. He opened the batting with Butcher in Surrey's match against

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

at Chelmsford in May 1983 when Surrey were bowled out for 14 runs, the lowest score in English first-class cricket since 1907 and Surrey's lowest first-class score ever.Brett O (2003
Surrey's lowest point

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC BBC Television, television, BBC Radio, radio and BBC Online, online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadc ...

, 2003-05-30. Retrieved 2017-04-17. Clinton top-scored with six runs in the first innings before scoring 65

not out In cricket, a batsman is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batsman is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at ...

as Surrey batted through their second innings to draw the match.Lynch S (2000
The high-school teacher who stumped Bradman - twice
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', 2000-03-23. Retrieved 2017-04-17. With all partners, Clinton took part in 31 century opening partnerships, and 73 century stands when all wickets are considered.''Surrey County Cricket Club First-Class Records 1846-2000, Limited Overs Records 1963-2000'', compiled by The Surrey Statistics Group,

. He scored over a thousand runs in his first season with Surrey, a feat he achieved on six other occasions: 1980, 1981, 1985, 1986, 1988 and 1990. His best seasons, when he

averaged In mathematics and statistics, the arithmetic mean ( ), arithmetic average, or just the ''mean'' or ''average'' is the sum of a collection of numbers divided by the count of numbers in the collection. The collection is often a set of results fr ...

in the 40s, were 1984, 1985, 1988 and 1990, although he had poor seasons in 1983 and 1989, when his average fell below 25. Clinton was still scoring well during his final season, with 1,292 runs at 46.14 in 1990. He and

Darren Bicknell Darren John Bicknell (born 24 June 1967) is an English former cricketer. He is a left-handed batsman and a slow left-arm bowler. Born in Guildford, Darren is the brother of former England seam bowler Martin Bicknell. However, he struggled to ha ...

added 321 for the first wicket against

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...

. His final first-class match was against his old county of Kent at Canterbury. He played 4 matches for

Zimbabwe-Rhodesia Zimbabwe Rhodesia (), alternatively known as Zimbabwe-Rhodesia, also informally known as Zimbabwe or Rhodesia, was a short-lived unrecognised sovereign state that existed from 1 June 1979 to 18 April 1980, though it lacked international recog ...

in the 1979/80

Currie Cup The Currie Cup () is South Africa's premier domestic rugby union competition featuring teams representing either entire provinces or substantial regions within provinces. Although it is the premier domestic competition, four South African franc ...

. Clinton was by nature a defensive batsman. The Surrey coach

Micky Stewart Michael James Stewart (born 16 September 1932) is an English former cricketer, coach and administrator. A right-handed batsman, Stewart's international career was hampered by illness that curtailed his first overseas tour – serving as vice-c ...

said that he "formed the backbone of the innings, the platform from which our strokemakers can play." He was famously injury-prone, being taken to hospital in fifteen of the then seventeen first-class counties.

Coaching career and family

After he retired Clinton became the coach of

's Second XI in 1992, leading the side to the

Second XI Championship The Second XI Championship is a season-long cricket competition in England that is competed for by the reserve teams of those county cricket clubs that have first-class status. The competition started in 1959 and has been contested annually eve ...

in that year. He coached Surrey's First XI from 1994 to 1995 but left the county by mutual consent after "two ... seasons of unfulfilled promise". He was also a coach at

and, as of 2017, is master-in-charge of cricket at

Colfe's School Colfe's School, previously Colfe's Grammar School, is a co-educational private day school in Horn Park in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, in southeast London, England, and one of the oldest schools in London. The school is a member of the Headm ...

Greenwich Greenwich ( , , ) is an List of areas of London, area in south-east London, England, within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London, east-south-east of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime hi ...

.Cricket

. Retrieved 2017-04-17.Where are they now? Surrey – Benson & Hedges Cup runners-up 1979
''The Cricket Paper'', 2015-10-20. Retrieved 2017-04-17. His son, Richard Clinton, played for

, Loughborough UCCE and Surrey where he sometimes appeared in the same side as

Mark Butcher Mark Alan Butcher (born 23 August 1972) is an English cricket commentator and former English Test cricketer, who played county cricket for Surrey from 1992 until his retirement in 2009. He was a left-handed batsman, and occasional right-arm medi ...

, the son of Grahame Clinton's old opening partner.Richard Clinton
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-04-17.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clinton, Grahame 1953 births Living people English cricketers Kent cricketers Surrey cricketers People from Sidcup Cricketers from the London Borough of Bexley 20th-century English sportsmen