Portal:South Australia/Selected article/16

Clement "Clem" Hill (March 18, 1877 in Hindmarsh, Adelaide, South Australia – September 5, 1945 in Parkville, Melbourne, Victoria) was an Australian cricketer who played 49 Test matches as a specialist batsman between 1896 and 1912. He captained the Australian team in ten Tests, winning five and losing five. A prolific run scorer, Hill scored 3,412 runs in Test cricket—a world record at the time of his retirement—at an average of 39.21 per innings, including seven centuries. In 1902, Hill was the first batsman to make 1,000 runs in a calendar year, a feat that would not be repeated for 45 years. His innings of 365 scored against New South Wales for South Australia in 1900–01 was a Sheffield Shield record for 27 years. The South Australian Cricket Association named a stand at the Adelaide Oval in his honour in 2003 and he was inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame in 2005.

He played his first first-class cricket match for South Australia while still a schoolboy, aged sixteen. By the time he was nineteen, he had been included in the Australian team touring England in 1896, where he made his Test match début. At the Melbourne Cricket Ground two years later, Hill scored 188; his maiden Test century and still the highest score in Ashes Tests by a player under twenty-one. He was named one of Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1899, despite missing half the English season due to illness. In the 1901–02 season, Hill was dismissed in consecutive innings for 99, 98 and 97. In total he was dismissed in the nineties five times. In 1903–04, Hill was at the centre of a riot at the Sydney Cricket Ground when he was given out run out in a Test match against England. With Roger Hartigan he still holds the Australian Test record partnership for the eighth wicket – 243, made against England at the Gabba in Brisbane in 1907–08.