Clem Hill the hardman of cricket rendered in granite

Clem Hill was a hard man so it’s apt that he’s been rendered in granite.

The new Clem Hill staue is unveiled at Aelaide Oval yesterday.

Clem Hill was a hard man so it’s apt that he’s been rendered in granite.

And the granite chosen for the statue of the Australian captain — who notoriously won a fist fight with a Test selector — was hard by even granite standards.

Sculptor Silvio Apponyi chewed through a lot of diamond drill bits over five years of hard work on the Hill statue.

The end result was unveiled at Adelaide Oval’s southern gate yesterday to a warm reception amid a sense of a debt repaid.

For there was nothing at the ground to remember Hill since his stand, which was more platform than pavilion, at the back of the old southern mound was razed when the oval was redeveloped.

His absence was keenly felt. Because Hill was not only an Australian captain, he was one of the most gilded figures of cricket’s Golden Age.

A left-handed No 3 who was ­especially strong square of the wicket, Hill was a man who rose to a challenge.

His best innings came when Australia was reeling at 6-57 at the MCG in 1898. He made 188 and the hosts won by eight wickets.

Until overtaken by Jack Hobbs, Hill was Test cricket’s leading run-scorer. He was named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1900.

In 1901, he made 365 not out for South Australia against NSW at Adelaide Oval.

His 39.21 average was higher than his contemporary Victor Trumper, widely considered Australia’s best save Donald Bradman.

Hill recorded the highest score in the colony when he made 360 for Prince Alfred against St Peters on Adelaide Oval in 1893.

Debuting for South Australia at 16 and Australia at 19, he played 49 Tests, scoring 3412 runs, including seven hundreds and 19 fifties.

The latter column was swelled by his apparent indifference to turning 90s into 100s. In consecutive Test innings he scored 99, 98 and 97.

Hill is a strong link in the chain reaching back into the genesis of cricket in this country.

His father John scored the first century at Adelaide Oval, in 1877.

Consider how when he was skipper the Australian players were at war with the board. Over pay. Hence the fist fight in the SCG boardroom. He never played for Australia again.

“I think it’s fair to say that Clem was a colourful and aggressive character,” his great-nephew, SACA board member and Yalumba chairman Robert Hill-Smith said at the statue unveiling before play yesterday.

“Charismatic, strong-willed, larrikinesque ... he was often at odds with the Australian cricket board of control over tour ­arrangements and player payments (so) he may well have been a man before his time.

“The controversial selection process for the team and manager for the Ashes series in England (in 1912) culminated in a 20-minute fist fight in the NSW cricket ­association board room with selector Peter McAlister.

“I’m told Clem won, not only on points. Ultimately, he Trumper, (Warwick) Armstrong and the others refused to tour. And he didn’t play again for his country.”

When Hill died in 1945, aged 68, the SACA decided its next stand would take his name.

That promise was broken when the former Sir Donald Bradman stand was built in the late 1980s. And broken further in the brace of new stands not named after Hill.

(The Adelaide authorities have overseen open seasons on Hills in recent years — witness a scoreboard mound reduced to the size of a large postage stamp despite clear promises to the contrary.)

Apponyi said the statue’s raw material was the “hardest piece of stone I’ve ever worked on”.

“When you finally see that you’ve achieved the arrogance in the posture that you wanted then it’s a happy thing,” he said. “And he’s a bit rough around the edges, which is what I wanted as well.”