Clem Hill's 188 — A Maiden Test Century at 20, Melbourne 1898

Hill had been a Prince Alfred College schoolboy prodigy; he made 360 in a school match aged 16. He played his first Sheffield Shield innings for South Australia in 1894-95 aged 17. The 1897-98 series was his first full Test run; he had failed in the First Test at Sydney with scores of 96 and 0.

England 315 first innings; MacLaren 35; Stoddart absent on family reasons. Australia 6/58 against Richardson; Hill in at six.

Hill had played his first Test against the same England side in the previous Sydney match aged 19, making 96 and 0. The Second Test at Melbourne was the moment the cricket world had been waiting for. England, captained by MacLaren in Stoddart's absence, won the toss and made 315. Australia replied; the early innings collapsed against Tom Richardson and Johnny Briggs to 6 for 58.

Hill, batting at six, joined his older state colleague Hugh Trumble. Together they added 165, of which Trumble made 46 and Hill 119 by stumps. The next day Hill went on, careful in the morning and free after lunch, and was eventually out for 188 in 285 minutes. Australia 520. England, set 405 in the third innings of an effective timeless Test, were dismissed for 150. Australia won by an innings and 55.

The 188 was the fastest Test 100 by a player under 21 (Hill turned 21 in March 1898) and remained the highest Ashes Test score by an under-21 — a record never beaten. Hill went on to score 829 runs at 75.36 in the 12 first-class innings of the tour, and was Wisden Cricketer of the Year for 1899.

“He defended every ball as though it might be the deciding one of his life.”

Hill scored 829 runs at 75.36 across the tour and a further 96, 58 and 188 in the remaining Tests. He played another 41 Tests through to 1912. His career — 49 Tests, 3,412 runs at 39.21, 7 hundreds — made him the central left-handed Australian batsman before Neil Harvey. He died in 1945 in Melbourne aged 68.