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

er. Although he was born at

Fairfield, New South Wales Fairfield is a Greater Western Sydney, western suburb of 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 administrati ...

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 ( bn, বাংলাদেশী ) are the citizens of Bangladesh, a South Asian country centered on the transnational historical region of Bengal along the eponymous bay. Bangladeshi citizenship was formed in 1971, when the ...

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

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...

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 and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...

in which, batting at number ten and scoring 38, he shared a partnership of 80 with centurion Anthony McGrath. 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 ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

side

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. ...

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 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 ...

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 (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

. 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 hel ...

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 Ke ...

, 2016-08-05. Retrieved 2016-08-05. 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 and websites throughout the county. Iliffe Media acquired KM ...

'', 2016-08-08. Retrieved 2016-11-21. He played for Kent until the end of the 2019 season when he moved to

. Claydon plays for Newcastle City Cricket Club in

Newcastle, New South Wales Newcastle ( ; Awabakal: ) is a metropolitan area and the second most populated city in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It includes the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie local government areas, and is the hub of the Greater Newcastle area, w ...

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 ...

'', 2015-06-25. Retrieved 2018-04-01. 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 im ...

, Claydon took his 300th wicket in first-class cricket. On 30 September 2020 the Cricket Discipline Commission Panel banned Claydon for nine matches after he admitted to ball tampering. The charge related to Sussex's Bob Willis Trophy game against

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

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