Arthur Milton
Encyclopedia
Clement Arthur Milton was an English
cricket
er and footballer. He played County cricket
for Gloucestershire
from 1948 to 1974, playing six Test matches
for England in 1958 and 1959. He also played domestic football for Arsenal
between 1951 and 1955, and then for a brief period for Bristol City
. He played one match for England
in 1951, against Austria
at Wembley. He was the last man, and the last survivor, of the twelve people to have played at the highest international level for both England's football and cricket teams.
The cricket writer, Colin Bateman, described Milton as a, "stylish, relaxed run-maker".
, and was educated at Cotham Grammar School also in Bristol. A natural sportsman, he became School Captain
of cricket
, football and rugby union
. He also showed talent at mathematics, but decided to pursue sporting glory rather than attend university.
, and then started to play for Gloucestershire Second XI. He made his first-class
debut for Gloucestershire
in June 1948, against Northants
. He went on to play county cricket
in 585 matches over 26 years, until he retired in 1974.
Milton was 12th man in the Ashes
series against Australia in 1953, and was named as 12th man again for the first Test against South Africa
in 1955 (although he was forced to withdraw through injury). He played six Tests
for England
between 1958 and 1959. He made his Test debut in the third Test against New Zealand
on 3 July 1958 at Headingley
. He opened the batting with MJK Smith (another double international, at cricket and rugby), scoring 104 not out. He was the first Gloucestershire player to score a century on his England Test debut since W.G. Grace. He was also the first England player to remain on the playing field the whole of a Test match: he fielded throughout New Zealand's first innings, then opened the batting for England and ended undefeated, and fielded again through New Zealand's second innings, as England won by an innings and 71 runs. He lost his place for the fourth Test, but returned for the fifth Test at the Oval
. He was one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year
in 1959.
Milton was part of the England side that toured Australia
that winter, playing in the first Test at Sydney and the third Test at Melbourne, but he struggled, and returned home with an injured finger. He played in the first two Tests against India in 1959, ending his short Test career in the second Test at Lord's
that June.
Milton never played Test cricket again, but he continued to achieve success in county cricket. In all, he took 79 first-class wickets with his right-arm medium pace bowling, and his football fitness and quick reflexes also made him a notably fast runner in the field, taking 758 catches, but he was mainly a prolific opening batsman from 1951, noted for his running between the wickets. He scored over 32,000 first-class runs at the relatively low batting average
of 33.66 runs, passing 1,000 runs in 16 seasons. He played 1,017 innings for Gloucestershire, a record for the county. Perhaps his best season was 1967, when, aged 39, he scored seven centuries and passed 2,000 runs. He was Gloucestershire captain
in 1968.
He was a coach at Oxford University
after his retirement.
as an amateur in April 1945, turning professional the next year. National Service
meant Milton had to break his football career for two years between 1946 and 1948, but he returned to Arsenal afterwards and continued to play in Arsenal's reserve side. He made his first-team debut against Aston Villa
on his twenty third birthday, 10 March 1951. He went on to become a regular for Arsenal at right half and outside-right.
After making only twelve League appearances, Milton was called up for England
, and won his first and only cap, in a 2-2 draw against Austria
on 28 November 1951. Milton went on to win the First Division
title with Arsenal in 1952-53
, but soon after faced competition for his place from Danny Clapton
and Derek Tapscott
.
In all, Milton played 84 matches for Arsenal, scoring 21 goals. After only being a bit-part player for two seasons, he moved to Bristol City
in February 1955 for a transfer fee of £4,000. He helped them win promotion to Division Two
. After 15 matches at Bristol, he retired from football altogether in the summer of 1955 to concentrate on his cricket career.
, where he was a big fan of greyhound racing. He also played golf, off a handicap
of four, and snooker
and billiards
.
He received an honorary MA from Bristol University in 2002. He died at the age of 79 in hospital, shortly after suffering a heart attack
in his house in Bristol on the morning of 25 April 2007. He was survived by his wife and their three sons.
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
er and footballer. He played County cricket
County cricket
County cricket is the highest level of domestic cricket in England and Wales. For the 2010 season, see 2010 English cricket season.-First-class counties:...
for Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire County Cricket Club
Gloucestershire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the historic county of Gloucestershire. Its limited overs team is called the Gloucestershire Gladiators....
from 1948 to 1974, playing six Test matches
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
for England in 1958 and 1959. He also played domestic football for Arsenal
Arsenal F.C.
Arsenal Football Club is a professional English Premier League football club based in North London. One of the most successful clubs in English football, it has won 13 First Division and Premier League titles and 10 FA Cups...
between 1951 and 1955, and then for a brief period for Bristol City
Bristol City F.C.
Bristol City Football Club is one of two football league clubs in Bristol, England . They play at Ashton Gate, located in the south-west of the City...
. He played one match for England
England national football team
The England national football team represents England in association football and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in England. England is the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside Scotland, whom they played in the world's first...
in 1951, against Austria
Austria national football team
The Austria national football team is the association football team that represents the country of Austria in international competition and is controlled by the Austrian Football Association ....
at Wembley. He was the last man, and the last survivor, of the twelve people to have played at the highest international level for both England's football and cricket teams.
The cricket writer, Colin Bateman, described Milton as a, "stylish, relaxed run-maker".
Early life
Milton was born in Bedminster, in BristolBristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
, and was educated at Cotham Grammar School also in Bristol. A natural sportsman, he became School Captain
School Captain
School Captain is a student appointed or elected to represent the school.This student, usually in the senior year, in their final year of attending that school...
of cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
, football and rugby union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
. He also showed talent at mathematics, but decided to pursue sporting glory rather than attend university.
Cricket career
Milton played for Stapleton Cricket Club as an all-rounderAll-rounder
An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a few batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are considered specialists...
, and then started to play for Gloucestershire Second XI. He made his first-class
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
debut for Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire County Cricket Club
Gloucestershire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the historic county of Gloucestershire. Its limited overs team is called the Gloucestershire Gladiators....
in June 1948, against Northants
Northamptonshire County Cricket Club
Northamptonshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Northamptonshire. Its limited overs team is called the Northants Steelbacks. The traditional club colour is Maroon. During the...
. He went on to play county cricket
County cricket
County cricket is the highest level of domestic cricket in England and Wales. For the 2010 season, see 2010 English cricket season.-First-class counties:...
in 585 matches over 26 years, until he retired in 1974.
Milton was 12th man in the Ashes
The Ashes
The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. It is one of the most celebrated rivalries in international cricket and dates back to 1882. It is currently played biennially, alternately in the United Kingdom and Australia. Cricket being a summer sport, and the venues...
series against Australia in 1953, and was named as 12th man again for the first Test against South Africa
South African cricket team
The South African national cricket team represent South Africa in international cricket. They are administrated by Cricket South Africa.South Africa is a full member of the International Cricket Council, also known as ICC, with Test and One Day International, or ODI, status...
in 1955 (although he was forced to withdraw through injury). He played six Tests
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
for England
English cricket team
The England and Wales cricket team is a cricket team which represents England and Wales. Until 1992 it also represented Scotland. Since 1 January 1997 it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board , having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club from 1903 until the end...
between 1958 and 1959. He made his Test debut in the third Test against New Zealand
New Zealand cricket team
The New Zealand cricket team, nicknamed the Black Caps, are the national cricket team representing New Zealand. They played their first in 1930 against England in Christchurch, New Zealand, becoming the fifth country to play Test cricket. It took the team until 1955–56 to win a Test, against the...
on 3 July 1958 at Headingley
Headingley Stadium
Headingley Stadium is a sporting complex in the Leeds suburb of Headingley in West Yorkshire, England. It is the home of Yorkshire County Cricket Club, rugby league team Leeds Rhinos and rugby union team Leeds Carnegie ....
. He opened the batting with MJK Smith (another double international, at cricket and rugby), scoring 104 not out. He was the first Gloucestershire player to score a century on his England Test debut since W.G. Grace. He was also the first England player to remain on the playing field the whole of a Test match: he fielded throughout New Zealand's first innings, then opened the batting for England and ended undefeated, and fielded again through New Zealand's second innings, as England won by an innings and 71 runs. He lost his place for the fourth Test, but returned for the fifth Test at the Oval
The Oval
The Kia Oval, still commonly referred to by its original name of The Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, in the London Borough of Lambeth. In the past it was also sometimes called the Kennington Oval...
. He was one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year
Wisden Cricketers of the Year
The Wisden Cricketers of the Year are cricketers selected for the honour by the annual publication Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, based primarily on their "influence on the previous English season"...
in 1959.
Milton was part of the England side that toured Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
that winter, playing in the first Test at Sydney and the third Test at Melbourne, but he struggled, and returned home with an injured finger. He played in the first two Tests against India in 1959, ending his short Test career in the second Test at Lord's
Lord's Cricket Ground
Lord's Cricket Ground is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and Wales Cricket Board , the European Cricket Council and, until August 2005, the...
that June.
Milton never played Test cricket again, but he continued to achieve success in county cricket. In all, he took 79 first-class wickets with his right-arm medium pace bowling, and his football fitness and quick reflexes also made him a notably fast runner in the field, taking 758 catches, but he was mainly a prolific opening batsman from 1951, noted for his running between the wickets. He scored over 32,000 first-class runs at the relatively low batting average
Batting average
Batting average is a statistic in both cricket and baseball that measures the performance of cricket batsmen and baseball hitters. The two statistics are related in that baseball averages are directly descended from the concept of cricket averages.- Cricket :...
of 33.66 runs, passing 1,000 runs in 16 seasons. He played 1,017 innings for Gloucestershire, a record for the county. Perhaps his best season was 1967, when, aged 39, he scored seven centuries and passed 2,000 runs. He was Gloucestershire captain
Captain (cricket)
The captain of a cricket team often referred to as the skipper is the appointed leader, having several additional roles and responsibilities over and above those of a regular player...
in 1968.
He was a coach at Oxford University
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
after his retirement.
Football career
He joined ArsenalArsenal F.C.
Arsenal Football Club is a professional English Premier League football club based in North London. One of the most successful clubs in English football, it has won 13 First Division and Premier League titles and 10 FA Cups...
as an amateur in April 1945, turning professional the next year. National Service
National service
National service is a common name for mandatory government service programmes . The term became common British usage during and for some years following the Second World War. Many young people spent one or more years in such programmes...
meant Milton had to break his football career for two years between 1946 and 1948, but he returned to Arsenal afterwards and continued to play in Arsenal's reserve side. He made his first-team debut against Aston Villa
Aston Villa F.C.
Aston Villa Football Club is an English professional association football club based in Witton, Birmingham. The club was founded in 1874 and have played at their current home ground, Villa Park, since 1897. Aston Villa were founder members of The Football League in 1888. They were also founder...
on his twenty third birthday, 10 March 1951. He went on to become a regular for Arsenal at right half and outside-right.
After making only twelve League appearances, Milton was called up for England
England national football team
The England national football team represents England in association football and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in England. England is the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside Scotland, whom they played in the world's first...
, and won his first and only cap, in a 2-2 draw against Austria
Austria national football team
The Austria national football team is the association football team that represents the country of Austria in international competition and is controlled by the Austrian Football Association ....
on 28 November 1951. Milton went on to win the First Division
Football League First Division
The First Division was a division of The Football League between 1888 and 2004 and the highest division in English football until the creation of the Premier League in 1992. The secondary tier in English football has since become known as the Championship....
title with Arsenal in 1952-53
1952-53 in English football
The 1952–53 season was the 73rd season of competitive football in England.-Events:This was the closest championship win in English league history at the time, with Arsenal claiming the title by just 0.099 of a goal. Both Arsenal and Preston had identical records aside from their goal averages...
, but soon after faced competition for his place from Danny Clapton
Danny Clapton
Daniel Robert "Danny" Clapton was an English footballer.Born in Stepney, London, Clapton first started out as an amateur with Leytonstone before joining Arsenal in August 1953. He made his debut in a 1-0 win over Chelsea on December 25, 1954, and by the end of the 1954-55 he was Arsenal's first...
and Derek Tapscott
Derek Tapscott
Derek Robert Tapscott was a Welsh former professional footballer and Wales international.-Early life:Born in Barry, to Florence and Stanley, Tapscott was one of sixteen children. As a child he began attending High Street Junior School in August 1936 where he remained until leaving school at the...
.
In all, Milton played 84 matches for Arsenal, scoring 21 goals. After only being a bit-part player for two seasons, he moved to Bristol City
Bristol City F.C.
Bristol City Football Club is one of two football league clubs in Bristol, England . They play at Ashton Gate, located in the south-west of the City...
in February 1955 for a transfer fee of £4,000. He helped them win promotion to Division Two
Football League Second Division
From 1892 until 1992, the Football League Second Division was the second highest division overall in English football.This ended with the creation of the FA Premier League, prior to the start of the 1992–93 season, which caused an administrative split between The Football League and the teams...
. After 15 matches at Bristol, he retired from football altogether in the summer of 1955 to concentrate on his cricket career.
Personal life, retirement and death
He married Joan, the daughter of his first landlady as a young recruit at Arsenal. After his sporting career ended, Milton became a postman in BristolBristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
, where he was a big fan of greyhound racing. He also played golf, off a handicap
Golf handicap
A handicap is a numerical measure of an amateur golfer's playing ability based on the tees played for a given course. It is used to calculate a net score from the number of strokes actually played, thus allowing players of different proficiency to play against each other on somewhat equal terms...
of four, and snooker
Snooker
Snooker is a cue sport that is played on a green baize-covered table with pockets in each of the four corners and in the middle of each of the long side cushions. A regular table is . It is played using a cue and snooker balls: one white , 15 worth one point each, and six balls of different :...
and billiards
Billiards
Cue sports , also known as billiard sports, are a wide variety of games of skill generally played with a cue stick which is used to strike billiard balls, moving them around a cloth-covered billiards table bounded by rubber .Historically, the umbrella term was billiards...
.
He received an honorary MA from Bristol University in 2002. He died at the age of 79 in hospital, shortly after suffering a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
in his house in Bristol on the morning of 25 April 2007. He was survived by his wife and their three sons.