Cliff Gladwin
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| Batting style | Right-hand bat | |
| Bowling type | Right-arm fast-medium | |
| Tests | First-class | |
| Matches | 8 | 374 |
| Runs scored | 170 | 6283 |
| Batting average | 28.33 | 17.35 |
| 100s/50s | -/1 | 1/15 |
| Top score | 51* | 124* |
| Balls bowled | 2129 | 81296 |
| Wickets | 15 | 1653 |
| Bowling average | 38.06 | 18.30 |
| 5 wickets in innings | - | 101 |
| 10 wickets in match | - | 18 |
| Best bowling | 3/21 | 9/41 |
| Catches/stumpings | 2/- | 135/- |
Clifford Gladwin, born Doe Lea, Derbyshire, April 3, 1916 and died at Chesterfield on April 10, 1988, was a cricketer who played for Derbyshire and England.
A tall right-arm medium-fast seam bowler of great accuracy and consistency, Cliff Gladwin formed, with Les Jackson, the most feared new ball attack in the English first-class game for a dozen years after the Second World War. Gladwin was both penetrative and mean, with around a third of his overs being maidens, and in 13 full seasons he took 100 or more wickets 12 times, usually at an average of under 20 runs per wicket.
After a handful of games in 1939, he returned to the county in 1946 and was an instant success, taking over 100 wickets and leading an attack weakened by the absence of Bill Copson. With the return of Copson and George Pope the following year, Gladwin formed the only pace attack of even reasonable quality in an era when most counties relied largely on spin. All three played Test cricket against South Africa the following year. Whilst Pope was clearly not up to Test standard and Copson not the bowler who ten years ago against Warwickshire had produced probably the finest bowling in the history of county cricket, Gladwin at Old Trafford conceded only 58 runs in a marathon stint of 50 overs.
Although Gladwin headed the first-class averages in 1948, he did not play against probably the strongest side in the history of cricket owing to his past failure to take enough wickets at Test level. He did, however, play five Tests on the tour to South Africa in 1948-49 under George Mann. There he became a national hero by scoring the leg bye that won the Durban Test for England off the last possible ball of the match. In 1949, Gladwin developed so much as a batsman that he made 124 against Nottinghamshire and scored over 900 runs, but he never maintained this standard and only made one score over fifty in his last six seasons. Gladwin's ability as a batsman, unremarkable as it was, still stands out compared to fellow Derbyshire pacemen Bestwick, Copson, Jackson, Rhodes, Ward and Hendrick - who did not make a single fifty between them in 2,195 first-class innings!
However, as a bowler, Gladwin was always near the top of the averages until he retired in 1958 - though the return of England's pace bowling to more reasonable strength meant that he was out of the running for a Test berth during the 1950s. At times, owing to Derbyshire's shortage of spin, Gladwin actually bowled off-breaks when conditions were favourable. His career total of 1,653 wickets puts him 60th on the all-time list of wicket-takers, and his 1952 performance of 16 for 84 against Worcestershire is the second best in post-World War II county cricket, being bettered by only one run by Tony Lock four years later.
