 Clem's father was prominent in the Methodist Church and sent Clem to be educated at Prince Alfred College, the local Methodist school. "Inter-collegiate" matches, the annual fixtures against rivals St Peter's College, were fiercely contested. Hill played his first inter-collegiate match at the age of 13, keeping wicket and batting at number ten. His hands suffered from keeping wicket to the fast bowling of future Test team-mate Ernie Jones, leading to a decision to concentrate on batting. At 16, he scored 360 in the inter-collegiate match, a schoolboy record, bettering the mark made earlier by Joe Darling. Despite this, a school sportsmaster threatened to leave him out of the School XI (cricket team) if he continued to play the risky hook shot.
