OTD in 1918: Denis Compton the original Brylcreem boy was born

Denis Charles Scott Compton is regarded as one of England’s most remarkable batters. The right-handed batter spent his whole career with Middlesex County Cricket Club and represented the national team in 78 Test matches. In a surprising fact, Denis Compton was also a footballer who played as a winger and spent most of his career at Arsenal, an English professional football club based in Holloway. 

Born and raised in the urban district of Hendon, Compton joined the MCC ground staff at Lord’s Cricket Ground at the age of 15. Later, his impressive stint at the domestic level earned him a maiden call to the national team against New Zealand in 1937 at the age of 19 years and 83 days – the third youngest England debutant ever.

A year after his debut, Compton scored his maiden Test century at home against legendary Don Bradman’s Australia. Since then, he holds the record for England’s youngest Test century. In the same series, he scored an unbeaten 76 to save the match for England. Bradman was heavily impressed by his crucial knock on a rain-affected pitch.

The story behind the Compton-Miller medal in Men’s Ashes

When Compton reached his prime, World War II arrived and he was forced to serve in the army in India. He was allowed to play for the Holkar team in the Ranji Trophy, India’s premier red-ball tournament. That marked the beginning of Compton’s close friendship with his Australian counterpart Keith Miller.

They played against each other in a match between the Australian Services team and the East Zone in Kolkata. However, the rioters disrupted the match when Compton was batting on 94*. In 2005, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and Cricket Australia decided to name the Player of the Series award in men’s Ashes series as the ‘Compton–Miller medal’ – a recognition of their camaraderie and rivalry.

Compton finished his Test career with 5807 runs from 78 matches at an average of 50.06, including 17 centuries. Notably, he is one of only 25 players to have scored more than 100 centuries in first-class cricket. Compton’s century tally in all first-class cricket stands at 123. He is also a handy bowler who has taken 25 Test wickets using his left-arm wrist spin. In 2009, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame by the Cricket Governing Body.

Compton is also known as the ‘Brylcreem boy’ as he was one of the earliest British sportsmen to make serious money from product endorsements. For many years he advertised Brylcreem, a British brand of hair styling products for men. 

Also read: Former Pakistan captain Sarfaraz Ahmed was born in 1987