Mitchell Eric Claydon (born 25 November 1982) is an Australian-English former

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 ...

er. Although he was born at

Fairfield, New South Wales Fairfield is a suburb of Greater Western Sydney, Western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Being in the centre of the Cumberland Plain, Fairfield is located west of the Sydney central business district and is the administrat ...

he holds a British passport. Claydon is a left-handed batsman and a right-arm medium-fast bowler. Claydon most recently played for

Sussex County Cricket Club Sussex County Cricket Club is the oldest of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Sussex. Its limited overs team is called the Sussex Sharks. The c ...

. In July 2021, Claydon announced that he would retire from cricket at the end of the 2021 season.

Career

Claydon's debut match came as a tailender batsman for a Yorkshire Second XI against a combined Kent and Middlesex XI. Though neither team were victorious, Claydon proved himself economical with the ball. He later played for the team during a

Bangladeshi Bangladeshis ( ) are the citizens and nationals of Bangladesh, a South Asian country centred on the transnational historical region of Bengal along the Bay of Bengal, eponymous bay. Bangladeshi nationality law, Bangladeshi citizenship was fo ...

tour of 2005, which saw a Bangladesh A team play against eight first-class counties. Claydon made his

County Championship The County Championship, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Rothesay County Championship, is the only domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales. Established in 1890, it is organised by the England and Wales Cri ...

debut in April of the following year. The match was a rain-affected draw, and Claydon's contribution was negligible. He made more of an impact in a later County Championship game against

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city in north east England **County Durham, a ceremonial county which includes Durham *Durham, North Carolina, a city in North Carolina, United States Durham may also refer to: Places ...

in which, batting at number ten and scoring 38, he shared a partnership of 80 with centurion

Anthony McGrath Anthony McGrath (born 6 October 1975) is an English cricket coach and former first-class cricketer, who played county cricket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1995 to 2012. He was a right-handed batsman and bowled part-time right-arm mediu ...

. Claydon remained within the Yorkshire Second XI during the early stages of the 2006 Second XI Championship, but was released at the end of that season. Following his release from Yorkshire, he signed for Durham in time for the beginning of the 2007 season. It was not until 2009 that Claydon began to make an impact at Durham and took 22 wickets in their championship winning side. In 2010, during the English winter, Claydon signed for

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

side

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 ...

and has continued to play regularly in New Zealand during the English off-season, playing for Canterbury for three seasons from 2010 to 2011 and then for

Central Districts The Central Stags, formerly known as Central Districts, are a first-class cricket team based in central New Zealand. They are the men's representative side of the Central Districts Cricket Association. They compete in the Plunket Shield firs ...

during the 2015–16 season. In June 2013 Claydon signed for

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 ...

initially on a months loan, later extended to a further month. It was announced that he was to join Kent permanently in 2014, but before that he returned to Durham one last time and took 6 wickets in a County Championship game against

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

. Claydon was awarded his Kent county cap at the 2016

Canterbury Cricket Week Canterbury Cricket Week is the oldest cricket festival week in England and involves a series of consecutive Kent home matches, traditionally held in the first week in August. It was founded in 1842, although a similar festival week was first he ...

in August 2016.Mitch Claydon awarded Kent cap

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 ...

, 5 August 2016. Retrieved 5 August 2016. Later in the same month he signed a new contract at the county.Kent bowler Mitch Claydon signs new contract
''

Kent Online KM Media Group is a multimedia company in the county of Kent, England which originated as the publisher of the Kent Messenger. The Group now produces local newspapers, radio stations, TV and websites throughout the county. Yattendon Group#Iliff ...

'', 8 August 2016. Retrieved 21 November 2016. He played for Kent until the end of the

2019 season Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number) * One of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (1987 film), a 1987 science fiction film * '' 19-Nineteen'', a 2009 South Korean film * '' Dici ...

when he moved to

. Claydon plays for Newcastle City Cricket Club in

Newcastle, New South Wales Newcastle, also commonly referred to as Greater Newcastle ( ; ), is a large Metropolitan area, metropolitan area and the second-most-populous such area of New South Wales, Australia. It includes the cities of City of Newcastle, Newcastle and Ci ...

during the Australian summer. He has captained and acted as coach of the side.Leeson J (2015
Australia’s tour match against Kent begins at St Lawrence Ground in Canterbury
''

Newcastle Herald The ''Newcastle Herald'' (formerly branded as ''The Herald'') is a local tabloid newspaper published daily, Monday to Saturday, in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. It is the only local newspaper that serves the greater Hunter Region and ...

'', 25 June 2015. Retrieved 1 April 2018. On 1 August 2020, on the opening day of the

2020 Bob Willis Trophy The 2020 Bob Willis Trophy was a first-class cricket tournament held in the 2020 English cricket season, and the inaugural edition of the Bob Willis Trophy. It was separate from the County Championship, which was not held in 2020 due to the i ...

, Claydon took his 300th wicket in first-class cricket. On 30 September 2020 the

Cricket Discipline Commission Panel Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field, at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails (small sticks) balanced on three stumps. Two players from the ...

banned Claydon for nine matches after he admitted to

ball tampering In the sport of cricket, ball tampering is an action in which a fielder illegally alters the condition of the ball. The primary motivation of ball tampering is to interfere with the aerodynamics of the ball to aid swing bowling. Definition Und ...

. The charge related to Sussex's Bob Willis Trophy game against

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

on 23 August 2020, when Claydon put hand sanitiser on the ball.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Claydon, Mitchell 1982 births English cricketers Living people Yorkshire cricketers Durham cricketers Canterbury cricketers Central Districts cricketers Kent cricketers Sussex cricketers Australian emigrants to the United Kingdom Australian cricketers Cricketers from Sydney 21st-century Australian sportsmen