Geoff Clayton
Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Full name | Geoffrey Clayton | |||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Mossley, England | 3 February 1938|||||||||||||||||||||
Died | 19 September 2018 Delph, England | (aged 80)|||||||||||||||||||||
Nickname | Chimp | |||||||||||||||||||||
Batting | Right-handed | |||||||||||||||||||||
Role | Wicket-keeper | |||||||||||||||||||||
Domestic team information | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Years | Team | |||||||||||||||||||||
1959–1964 | Lancashire | |||||||||||||||||||||
1965–1967 | Somerset | |||||||||||||||||||||
FC debut | 19 June 1957 Combined Services v Worcestershire | |||||||||||||||||||||
Last FC | 8 September 1967 Somerset v Lancashire | |||||||||||||||||||||
LA debut | 1 May 1963 Lancashire v Leicestershire | |||||||||||||||||||||
Last LA | 2 September 1967 Somerset v Kent | |||||||||||||||||||||
Career statistics | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Source: CricketArchive, 19 May 2010 |
Geoffrey Clayton (3 February 1938 – 19 September 2018) was an English professional first-class and List A cricketer for Lancashire and Somerset between 1959 and 1967.[1] He was a lower-order batsman and a wicketkeeper.
Clayton was a regular first-team player in every season in which he played first-class cricket and he was at or near to the top of the wicketkeepers' lists for most dismissals each year. But his abrasive personality did not endear him to county committees – or to his county captain at Somerset[2] – and he left first-class cricket at the age of 29.
He died on 19 September 2018, in Delph.[3]
Lancashire cricketer
Clayton played for Lancashire's second eleven in 1956 and 1957, but made his first-class cricket debut in the 1957 for the
Clayton was awarded his
The 1963 season proved to be Clayton's best with the bat: he scored 894 runs in all matches at an average of 22.92.
Dyson, who had returned after being sacked in 1960, was also not re-engaged, and Ken Grieves was replaced as captain. Though much of the county committee was then replaced in the end of year election, Clayton was not reinstated and had in any case by then joined Somerset.
Somerset cricketer
Clayton's arrival at Somerset was itself controversial. Harold Stephenson had been first-choice wicketkeeper since 1949 and captain since 1960, and though he was injured for much of the 1964 season he appears to have expected to continue in both roles.[15] But Somerset's committee offered the captaincy to Colin Atkinson and recruited Clayton as wicketkeeper.[16]
The move was initially successful. "Clayton demonstrated that he is among the three or four best keepers in the country," Wisden wrote. "His 85 victims came only one short of the county record held by Harold Stephenson."[17] Moreover, in just his fourth match for his new county, against Middlesex at the Imperial Ground, Bristol, he was sent in again as nightwatchman and this time made 106, the only century of his first-class career. The batting of the rest of his Somerset career never reached such heights again, but he was awarded his county cap in his first season and the following year, 1966, with just one fewer dismissal, he was the leading wicketkeeper in the English season.[18]
The record in his first two Somerset seasons made his departure at the end of his third surprising. Wisden noted: "The wicketkeeping of Clayton, although he was never dropped from the side, deteriorated sufficiently to decide the Executive not to offer him a further contract."[19] In fact, with 74 dismissals, he was third in the fielding statistics lists for the season.[20] And he retained his place in the side right through to Somerset's first appearance in a one-day final at Lord's in the 1967 Gillette Cup.[21]
There appear to have been other factors:
After playing in the final County Championship match of the 1967 season, four days after the Gillette Cup final, Clayton left the Somerset staff and did not appear in first-class cricket again.[24]
References
- ^ "Geoff Clayton". CricketArchive. Retrieved 16 May 2010.
- ISBN 0-7153-8890-8.
- ^ "Somerset mourn the passing of Geoff Clayton". Somerset County Cricket Club.
- ^ "Scorecard: Worcestershire v Combined Services". CricketArchive. 19 June 1957. Retrieved 17 May 2010.
- ^ "Scorecard: Yorkshire v Lancashire". CricketArchive. 3 June 1959. Retrieved 17 May 2010.
- ^ "Scorecard: Lancashire v Middlesex". CricketArchive. 17 June 1959. Retrieved 17 May 2010.
- ^ "Alan Wilson". CricketArchive. Retrieved 17 May 2010.
- ^ a b c "First-class Batting and Fielding in Each Season by Geoff Clayton". CricketArchive. Retrieved 17 May 2010.
- ^ "Lancashire in 1959". Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (1960 ed.). Wisden. p. 448.
- ^ a b "Most Catches in a Season for Lancashire". CricketArchive. Retrieved 17 May 2010.
- ^ "Lancashire in 1960". Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (1961 ed.). Wisden. p. 445.
- ^ "Scorecard: Sussex v Lancashire". CricketArchive. 7 August 1963. Retrieved 18 May 2010.
- ^ Quoted in "Lancashire in 1964". Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (1965 ed.). Wisden. p. 454.
- OCLC 1029372396.
- ^ David Foot (29 April 2008). "Harold Stephenson". The Guardian, 29 April 2008. London. Retrieved 29 April 2008.
- ^ "Scorecard: Somerset v Middlesex". CricketArchive. 15 May 1965. Retrieved 18 May 2010.
- ^ "Somerset in 1965". Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (1966 ed.). Wisden. p. 535.
- ^ "Fielding Statistics for 1966". Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (1967 ed.). Wisden. p. 369.
- ^ "Somerset in 1967". Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (1968 ed.). Wisden. p. 550.
- ^ "Fielding Statistics for 1967". Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (1968 ed.). Wisden. p. 334.
- ^ "Scorecard: Kent v Somerset". CricketArchive. 2 September 1967. Retrieved 18 May 2010.
- ISBN 0-7153-8890-8.
- ISBN 1-872971-23-7.
- ISBN 9781472963871.