Milton's Sporting Paradise

Arthur Milton: His patience, quick reflexes and ability to play the ball very late were allied to forge his mastery on difficult pitches © The Cricketer

The genial man from the land of the Graces glows with pleasure at the bounty of good health and the companionship of a happy family. In his sixties, Arthur Milton, as sparely built as he was in his quicksilver sporting heyday, is quietly fulfilled and radiant in his retirement.

His present joys do not pale by comparison with those illustrious days when he ruled on the Arsenal wing, or just as deftly outwitted bowlers on spinners' wickets at Bristol and won matches with astonishing reflex catches close to the bat. He was a natural games player as befitted the son of a keen local sportsman. As a boy, he would always carry his kit in the hope of a game on outings with his father to village matches. His first bat, a full-sized one and too big for the tiny, fair-haired boy, required carpentry before it was put into use. 'After the cut was made it was quite thick at the bottom,' he recalls. 'Even the yorkers used to go for runs.'

After Cotham Grammar School, where he came under the enthusiastic guidance of Bert Crew, the master of English and cricket and a later Gloucestershire scorer, he joined the Stapleton club. At Stapleton he followed in the footsteps of future county colleague, Jack Crapp. His centuries there carried him into the county fold. He was capped by Gloucestershire in 1949 and remembers the surety of his cricket apprenticeship and the wisdom offered by such seasoned professionals as George Emmett and Tom Goddard. 'They played well into their forties in those days. They talked to you about your cricket. I learned as much about the game in this way as I did from playing.' Lessons in manners and conduct were also taught by his seniors. Milton believes that the reduced generation gap in modern cricket has lessened behavioural standards.

In a career spanning 27 summers from 1948 until his retirement at the age of 46 in 1974, Milton scored 32,150 runs, including 56 centuries. He was equally at ease against pace or spin. His patience, quick reflexes and ability to play the ball very late were allied to forge his mastery on difficult pitches.

Milton won England recognition as an opening batsman at a time when the selectors were anxiously searching for a combination to quell the new ball. He still regrets the elevation in the county order, recommended by Gloucestershire captain George Emmett as a means of advancing his claims. 'I was much better at No. 5. It fitted me as an easy-going sort of chap, who needed a crisis to really get me going. If we had lost two or three wickets rather than enjoying the comfort of 200 for three, I was twice the player. I was a good competitor in such circumstances.'

His staunchness was often sorely needed on Gloucestershire wickets which never allowed a batsman to dominate the proceedings. One of Milton's best crisis innings owed much to the example set by Nottinghamshire batting stylist, Joe Hardstaff, on another turning wicket at Bristol in 1954. Milton hit 111 to combat the leg-spin of Bruce Dooland and shared a fifth wicket stand of 150 with Jack Crapp to spur a Gloucestershire recovery. He was 80 not out at stumps. Afterwards, in the pavilion bar, Hardstaff told him: 'I had a bet with six of our blokes that your lads wouldn't make a 100 against Bruce. Now it looks as if you will make 100 on your own.' Milton replied that he had watched Joe's resistance against the Gloucestershire left-hander, Sam Cook, and used this innings as a model for his own success.

Milton made his Test debut against New Zealand at Headingley in 1985. Paired with another double international, M.J.K. Smith, he scored 104 not out. He became the third England batsman since the war, following Billy Griffith and Peter May, to achieve the distinction of a century on his first appearance for England. Milton was also the first Gloucestershire batsman since W. G. Grace to score a century in his first Test and the first England player to be on the field throughout a Test match.

This century and another in his first Gentleman versus Players match earned him another England cap at The Oval. He was awarded a place in the MCC tour party, travelling by sea for the last time, to Australia in the following winter. Milton's only England tour, in which he played in two Tests at Brisbane and Sydney, was painfully curtailed by a broken finger. It coincided with a virulent bout of throwing by the Australian bowlers, with Rorke and Meckiff as the chief offenders. Milton recalled the hostility of Rorke in the match against New South Wales at Sydney. 'This fellow used to drag his foot through the crease and throw them at you from 18 yards. He was a bit rapid. They kept hitting my bat on the backlift and going down to third man. Then I nicked one on to my off stump and it broke it clean in half.' The MCC side were bowled out and followed on. To their undisguised glee the aggressive Rorke was no longer a threat in the second innings. 'While he had been fielding, Mr Rorke had thrown his arm out. He was just gentle medium pace when we batted again. Peter Richardson and I scored 170 for the first wicket.' It is as one of the most superbly endowed and,,predatory of close fieldsmen, at slip, gully or backward short-leg, that Milton would most like to be remembered.'I always felt this was the best of my game. I probably won as many matches by my catching as I did by my batting.' His career tally of 758 catches is a Gloucestershire record for a non-wicket-keeper. Milton held 63 catches in 1956 and equalled the world first-class record in taking seven in a day (eight in the match) against Sussex at Hove in 1952. In his early days, Milton was a vigilant patrol in the outfield. He was alert and safe as he gathered the steepling hits off the bowling of Sam Cook and Tom Goddard.

'I loved fielding. No day is long enough when you're young. It was different cricket then, with slow bowlers like Sam and Tom really attacking the batsmen.' Discussing the attributes of the brilliant close fielding specialist, Milton points to his own inbuilt reflexes - an ability to see the ball early and be able to move quickly to get into position to catch it. He urges a low stance where you can pick the ball off the ground because it is easier to go up than back down. 'The great thing is not to move in any direction until you sight the ball. This is a prime art. The rest you leave to your natural instincts.'

There were, of course, the fielding blunders which haunt the offender and raise eyebrows in consternation among others. Milton reckons his career haul would have been nearer 1,700 if he had caught them all. 'The best (or worst) of my drops was against Middlesex at Gloucester,' he recalls. 'We had had a nice game of cricket and finished up leaving them around 260 runs at 80 an hour to win. The last pair - the skipper, Ian Bedford and Mike Sturt were in. Mike hit up the biggest dolly of all time to me at mid-on and... bump, bump, down it goes. Middlesex needed 75 to win at this stage and they got them.'

At the end of the match, Milton, as captain, went in to the Middlesex dressing-room to congratulate his opposing skipper. Don Bennett was seated alongside Bedford. ' Art,' he said, 'it's very good of you to come in here and praise us.' Arthur replied: 'I'm bloody safer in here than with the Gloucester boys. They'll lynch me when I go in there.'

Milton's skills as an all-round sportsman took him, as a callow West Country boy, into the august portals of Highbury. With Arsenal, he won a First Division Championship medal in the 1952-53 season. He also represented England, replacing the injured Tom Finney on the right wing against Austria at Wembley in November, 1951. Ivor Broadis was his inside partner in the 2-2 draw. The luxurious stadium at Highbury was a dauntingly impressive venue when Milton joined Arsenal straight from school in 1946. 'It was a fantastic place, just like a first-class hotel, and had been built on the successes of the legendary manager, Herbert Chapman.'

As a junior Gunner, Milton mingled with the great names of soccer-TedDrake, Eddie Hapgood and George Male and the Comptons, Denis and Leslie, who had just returned from the war. 'Arsenal had about 40 players on their staff and they could have put three sides into the First Division without any problem at all.' He remembers the exhilaration of playing before Highbury crowds of 60,000 and how the excitement never spilled over into violence. George Swindin, Alec Forbes, Jimmy Logie (his inside partner), Doug Lishman and Don Roper were Milton's associates when he achieved promotion to the first team. 'Playing with such talented players sharpens your own abilities,' he says.

On the Arsenal right wing Milton displayed the gifts of acceleration which tease full-backs as they stretch vainly in pursuit. In training sprints at Highbury he surprised the coaching staff, who thought his easy lope showed a lack of endeavour. Milton was comfortably the quickest man in the club over 30 yards, at what appeared to be three-quarter throttle. 'A lot of people didn't think I was trying much of the time. But it was so effortless for me.'

The mental strain of year-long sport finally compelled Milton to call a halt to his soccer career. Before that happened he returned home to retire in style with a Third Division Championship medal in Bristol City's promotion season in 1954-55. The transfer fee paid to Arsenal was £3,000, half of which was to be refunded if Milton did not re-sign in the following season. His success in the unbeaten surge at Ashton Gate might have persuaded him to delay his exit. In later years he often wondered why the club did not ask him to continue. 'I always thought that they must have wanted their £1,500 quid back.'

There is a life-enhancing spirit which has placed Arthur Milton in the regard of a legion of friends in and out of sport. Cycling as a postman, after leaving cricket, and latterly delivering newspapers on the same round on the Bristol Downs, has been an aid to fitness. He is up and about soon after five and revels in his 15-mile circuit of the Downs on a lovely summer morning. The villagers used to say: 'You know, our postman is a double international'.

For as long as he can remember Milton has followed the fortunes of greyhounds on West Country tracks. 'I'm not a gambler,' he says. 'I wouldn't bet on the spin of a coin, or put money in a fruit machine. But I will bet my opinion, like an experienced stockbroker, on the dogs. I find this a challenge.' As the current regional cricket scout in the South-West, he takes a typically optimistic view on England's future Test prospects. He is especiallypleased by the continuity of selections, which he considers an important factor in establishing a good team spirit.

He does, though, lament the financial pressures imposed on modern players by agents determined to capitalise on their assets. He is sad sometimes when he sees the effect money has on discipline in the game. 'Art,' people say to the Gloucestershire veteran, 'if you'd played today, you would be a millionaire.' To this he replies: 'That is exactly what I am. I've got my health and strength. I enjoyed playing when I did. All the money in the world wouldn't have made me play any better.'