page_title: Denis Compton
section_title: Later career
hierarchical_section_title: Denis Compton / Cricket career / Later career
caption_attribution_description: Ashes Test Series 1954-1955. Denis Compton and other MCC players practice at the nets in Adelaide, 29 October 1954. SMH Picture by Harry Martin
context_page_description: Denis Charles Scott Compton CBE was an English cricketer who played in 78 Test matches and spent his whole cricket career with Middlesex. He was also an accomplished footballer who played most of his football career at Arsenal.
  A right-handed batsman and left arm unorthodox spin bowler, Compton is regularly credited as one of England's most remarkable batsmen. He is one of only twenty-five players to have scored over one hundred centuries in first-class cricket. In 2009, Compton was posthumously inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. The Denis Compton Oval and a stand at Lord's Cricket Ground are both named in his honour.
context_section_description: Against Bradman's Invincibles in 1948, Compton was England's standout performer in a losing cause. In the First Test at Trent Bridge he scored 184 in the second innings after Australia had established a first innings lead of 344, and it looked as though he might save the match for England until he lost his balance to a short-pitched ball from Miller and hit his wicket. In the Third Test at Old Trafford, Compton scored an unbeaten 145 in the first innings, when no other batsman made more than 37. He had scored only four runs when, while facing a bumper barrage from Ray Lindwall, he edged the ball onto his forehead. Compton was forced off the ground with a cut head, given two stitches, and ordered to rest despite wanting to return to the crease. He eventually came back out when England was teetering at 119 for 5 and enabled the team to reach 363. This was the only match that England did not lose, and if so much time had not been lost to the weather they might have won it. In the series he made 562 runs at 62.44, against fierce fast bowling from Lindwall, Miller and Bill Johnston.
  On the MCC tour of South Africa 1948–49 he scored 300 against North-Eastern Transvaal in just a minute over three hours – still the fastest triple-century ever in first-class cricket. His first hundred took 66 minutes (he said, "I was getting a sight of the bowling"), his second 78 minutes (he was not out overnight and had to play himself in again next morning), and his third hundred took just 37 minutes. Reminiscing about the match later, Compton compared the South Africans' bowling with a decent county side, but criticised their catching (he had been dropped before he reached 20).
  He toured Australia for 1950-51 Ashes series as vice-captain, the first professional in the 20th century to be awarded the position, but had a dismal tour because of a recurring knee problem caused by an old football injury. He averaged only 7.57 in the Tests, but 92.11 in his other first-class matches. He became the first professional to captain the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) for an entire game, Jack Hobbs having taken over from the injured Arthur Carr in 1924–25. He and Len Hutton made the winning runs in the Fifth Test at Melbourne, the first time Australia had been beaten since 1938.
  Compton also jointly captained Middlesex between 1951 and 1952, with Bill Edrich. Also in 1952, Compton scored his 100th first-class century against Northampton while featuring for Middlesex at Lord's. On the 1954–55 tour his departure was delayed for a remedial operation on his knee and he joined the team in Australia by aeroplane. In the First Test at Brisbane he badly cut his hand when he hit a billboard while fielding and batted at the bottom of the order. He missed the Second Test. He came third in the England Test averages (38.20), but topped the tour averages (57.07) and made three centuries. In his last Test against Australia in 1956 he made a dazzling 94 despite having just had his right kneecap removed.
  In home test series against Pakistan he set the record for scoring the most runs in between lunch and tea in a Test match (173).
  Compton finished his cricket career after playing 78 Test matches with 17 centuries at an average of 50.06. In all first-class cricket he scored 123 centuries.
caption: Compton at the Ashes Test Series on 29 October 1954
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