Mark James Chilton (born 2 October 1976) is an English

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. Chilton was educated at

Manchester Grammar School The Manchester Grammar School (MGS) in Manchester, England, is the largest independent school (UK), independent day school for boys in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1515 as a Grammar school#free tuition, free grammar school next to Manchester C ...

and

Durham University , mottoeng = Her foundations are upon the holy hills (Psalm 87:1) , established = (university status) , type = Public , academic_staff = 1,830 (2020) , administrative_staff = 2,640 (2018/19) , chancellor = Sir Thomas Allen , vice_chan ...

where he won the British Universities tournament in 1997. The same year he made his debut for

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, aged 20. Chilton has been compared in batting style to fellow

student and former

and

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

batsman

John Crawley John Paul Crawley (born 21 September 1971) is a former English first-class cricketer who played at international level for England and county cricket for Hampshire and Lancashire. Crawley, one of three brothers who all played first-class crick ...

. Chilton began the 2002 season as one half of Lancashire's first-choice opening partnership with

Alec Swann Alec James Swann (born 26 October 1976) is a former English cricketer who played for Northamptonshire and Lancashire in county cricket. A right handed batsman, he scored 3,305 first-class runs including eight centuries. He is the older brother ...

who joined the club in the off-season. For most of the season Chilton struggled for runs in the

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 ...

, although he was more successful in one-day cricket, scoring two hundreds in the

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 ...

. In September 2002, towards the end of the season, Chilton was awarded his

county cap In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

by Lancashire. He was appointed

captain when

Warren Hegg Warren Kevin Hegg (born 23 February 1968) is an English former professional cricketer. He played County Cricket for Lancashire. Although primarily a wicket-keeper, Hegg was also a handy lower-order batsman, and made several first-class hundred ...

resigned in September 2004 after relegation to County Championship Division Two. Chilton must consider the 2005 season, his first as

skipper, as a minor success after leading the county to promotion in the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

and to the final of the

Twenty20 Cup The T20 Blast, currently named the Vitality Blast for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Twenty20 cricket competition for English and Welsh first-class counties. The competition was established by the England and Wales Cricket Board (E ...

before losing out to

Somerset Sabres Somerset County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Somerset. Founded in 1875, Somerset was initially regarded as a minor ...

The Oval The Oval, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club since ...

. Lancashire also progressed to the semi-final of the Benson & Hedges Cup where they lost to Warwickshire. Chilton was close to tears after the match, which was the club's seventh defeat in a semi-final in six years. The 2007 County Championship was closely contested and going into the final round of matches, Lancashire were at the top of the table. A 24-run defeat to Surrey in their final fixture saw Lancashire finish as runners-up. Chilton was in tears afterwards and said "I'm extremely proud of what our guys have achieved though. As captain I'm privileged to have seen the efforts they have put in. To get close to our target was a phenomenal effort but the lads are just broken. Our players have risen to an almighty challenge and to come so close is an enormous effort". At the end of the season, Chilton resigned as Lancashire captain after three years in the position, citing reasons of form. He had managed 616 runs in the Championship that year at an average of 28.00. Although the team only won one trophy under Chilton's leadership, they came close on numerous occasions, narrowly missing out on two

titles, two

Twenty20 Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single innin ...

cups, and the

C&G Trophy The Friends Provident Trophy was a one-day cricket competition in the United Kingdom. It was one of the four tournaments in which the eighteen first-class counties competed each season. They were joined by teams from Scotland and Ireland. Lan ...

. Having relinquished the captaincy, Chilton spent most of the 2008 season in Lancashire's Second XI, struggling for form and trying to force his way back into the First team. In stark contrast, in 2009 he was voted Lancashire's Player of the Year. After retirement, Chilton returned to Manchester Grammar where he took the position of director of cricket. Chilton was awarded a

benefit season A benefit season is a method of financially rewarding professional cricketers that is used by English county cricket teams to compensate long serving players. The system originated in the 19th century to help out professional cricketers who were ...

for 2011. That year Lancashire won the County Championship for the first time since they shared the title in 1950, and their first outright win since 1934. Chilton contributed 478 runs in 13 Championship matches that season at an average of 22.76. At the end of the 2011 season he announced his retirement from playing cricket.

References

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chilton, Mark 1976 births Living people English cricketers Lancashire cricketers Lancashire cricket captains Cricketers from Sheffield People educated at Manchester Grammar School British Universities cricketers Alumni of Grey College, Durham