Malcolm Hilton
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 England (ENG) |
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| Batting style | Right-hand bat | |
| Bowling type | Slow left-arm orthodox | |
| Tests | First-class | |
| Matches | 4 | 270 |
| Runs scored | 37 | 3416 |
| Batting average | 7.40 | 12.11 |
| 100s/50s | -/- | 1/6 |
| Top score | 15 | 100* |
| Balls bowled | 1244 | 55360 |
| Wickets | 14 | 1006 |
| Bowling average | 34.07 | 19.42 |
| 5 wickets in innings | 1 | 51 |
| 10 wickets in match | - | 8 |
| Best bowling | 5/61 | 8/19 |
| Catches/stumpings | 1/- | 202/- |
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Test debut: 12 August 1950 |
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Malcolm Hilton (Malcolm Jameson Hilton, born August 2, 1928, Chadderton, Lancashire, England; died July 8, 1990, Oldham, Lancashire, England) was a left-arm spin bowler who played for Lancashire and England.
He began playing in the Lancashire League as a teenager, and played one match for Lancashire in each of 1946 and 1947. However, Hilton first came into prominence at the age of 19 by dismissing Donald Bradman twice in Lancashire's match with the Australians in May 1948. His first 10 wickets were Test batsmen, but Lancashire kept him from the front line up to the end of 1949. However, with 103 wickets for the Second Eleven in the Minor Counties Championship, he was clearly too good for second-class cricket and in 1950 he gained a permanent place. With 125 wickets for less than 17 runs apiece, though greatly aided by underprepared Old Trafford pitches, Malcolm Hilton was called up for the final Test match against the West Indies but was not successful. In 1951 he did equally well despite a torrid time on a featherbed piutch at Headingley, and toured India the following winter. Though his lack of wrist action meant he could not obtain response from most Indian pitches, on a surprisingly "biting" pitch at Kanpur in the fourth Test he took nine wickets in the match and lead England to victory alongside his off-spinning Lancastrian colleague Roy Tattersall.
However, in 1952 Hilton failed to keep up his form and was in and out of the county side for Bob Berry, whilst in 1953 he lost his place permanently as his accuracy began to desert him. As Berry lost form after his own best season in 1953, Hilton returned in the wet summer of 1954 but did not do remarkably well, but in 1955 - with pitches less helpful - he again took 100 wickets but was more expensive. A robust lower-order batsman, Hilton surprised that season by scoring a century in even time against Northamptonshire on a typically placid Northampton pitch.
However, in 1956 Hilton moved so far forward that he became rated one of the leading slow bowlers in the country, and with Tattersall formed a spin partnership thought by many to be the equal of that of Jim Laker and Tony Lock for Surrey. Hilton was third in the national averages that year and only Don Shepherd took more wickets. His work naturally was, with Laker and Lock ineligible, rewarded with nomination as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year. (The picture illustrates the use of a packed off-side field which developed as bowlers strove to reduce scoring).
His younger brother Jim played a few times for Lancashire and a bit more often for Somerset. At Weston-super-Mare in 1956, Malcolm Hilton took 14 Somerset wickets and Jim Hilton responded with eight Lancashire batsmen.
At twenty-eight, most predicted Malcolm Hilton would go on to even higher achievements in subsequent years. However, in 1957 lack of accuracy, which had plagued him a few years back, began to desert him and he took only 64 first-class wickets for an expensive 22 runs apiece. Even in the wet summer of 1958 when he took 94 wickets and in a rain-ruined match against the weak New Zealand tourists a career-best eight for nineteen, his accuracy was still lacking. It was a surprise, however, when he lost his place for good early in 1959 as Tommy Greenhough took over Lancashire's spin bowling. Though he played a few matches when Greenhough had run-up problems, he showed none of his former skill and even when Greenhough was injured in 1961 he did so little that he only took five wickets in three matches (of which four were in one innings). Concern over their spin bowling if Greenhough could not stay fit led Lancashire to consider re-engaging him, but he returned to the Lancashire League.
