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

cricket 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 balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

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 Ke ...

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 London ...

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. Before ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

in 1953. He was educated at Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School.Graeme Clinton

CricInfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a d ...

. Retrieved 2017-04-17. He played cricket for the English Schools Cricket Association and

England Young Cricketers The England Under-19 cricket team have been playing official Under-19 Test matches since 1974. Prior to 1991/92 they were known as England Young Cricketers. English national cricket captains#Youth cricket, Former captains include Mike Atherton, ...

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 one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

debut for the county against the touring

Pakistanis Pakistanis ( ur, , translit=Pākistānī Qaum, ) are the citizens and nationals of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. According to the 2017 Pakistani national census, the population of Pakistan stood at over 213 million people, making it the w ...

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. ...

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 s ...

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 Englan ...

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 and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

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

List A List A cricket is a classification of the 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 competitions in which the numbe ...

matches for Kent.Surrey part company with Clinton
''

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'', 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-clas ...

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 ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

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

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

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 county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

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 television, radio and online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadcasting the sport live or alongside flag ...

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

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 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', 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 ( ) or arithmetic average, or just the ''mean'' or the ''average'' (when the context is clear), is the sum of a collection of numbers divided by the count of numbers in the collection. The colle ...

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 hav ...

added 321 for the first wicket against

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

. 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, and sometimes as Rhobabwe, was a short-lived sovereign state that existed from 1 June to 12 December 1979. Zimbabwe Rhodesia was p ...

in the 1979/80

Currie Cup The Currie Cup is South Africa's premier domestic rugby union competition, played each winter and spring (June to October), featuring teams representing either entire provinces or substantial regions within provinces. Although it is the premier ...

. 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-ca ...

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 ever ...

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 independent day school in Lee in the London Borough of Lewisham, in southeast London, England, and one of the oldest schools in London. The school is a member of the Headmast ...

Greenwich Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...

.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 Loughborough MCC University (previously known as Loughborough University Centre of Cricketing Excellence) is a cricket coaching centre based at Loughborough University in Loughborough, Leicestershire, England, and the name under which the universi ...

and Surrey where he sometimes appeared in the same side as

Mark Butcher Mark may refer to: Currency * Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina * East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic * Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927 * Fin ...

, 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 Sportspeople from the London Borough of Bexley