Clinton first played for
Kent's Second XI in 1971 and made his
first-class cricket debut for the county against the touring
Pakistanis at
Canterbury in July 1974. He did not play again for the county until 1976 and, with the exception of 1977 when he made 18 first-class appearances, his opportunities for Kent were limited in a team which won the
1978 County Championship and
Benson & Hedges Cup and shared the
1977 title. He joined
Surrey prior to the 1979 season having played 32 first-class and 10
List A matches for Kent. At Surrey he immediately formed a successful opening partnership with
Alan Butcher which lasted until the 1986 season when Butcher suffered a loss of form and was dropped down the order and then omitted from the team before being released by Surrey at the end of the season. Their first wicket stands included 277 against
Yorkshire in 1984, when Clinton made his highest score of 192, and 266 against
Cambridge University in 1980. Butcher and Clinton shared 19 century opening partnerships for Surrey. Clinton top-scored with six runs in the first innings before scoring 65
not out as Surrey batted through their second innings to draw the match. With all partners, Clinton took part in 31 century opening partnerships, and 73 century stands when all wickets are considered. He scored over a thousand runs in his first season with Surrey, a feat he achieved on six other occasions: 1980, 1981, 1985, 1986, 1988 and 1990. His best seasons, when he
averaged in the 40s, were 1984, 1985, 1988 and 1990, although he had poor seasons in 1983 and 1989, when his average fell below 25. Clinton was still scoring well during his final season, with 1,292 runs at 46.14 in 1990. He and
Darren Bicknell added 321 for the first wicket against
Northamptonshire. His final first-class match was against his old county of Kent at Canterbury. He played 4 matches for
Zimbabwe-Rhodesia in the 1979/80
Currie Cup. Clinton was by nature a defensive batsman. The Surrey coach
Micky Stewart said that he "formed the backbone of the innings, the platform from which our strokemakers can play." He was famously injury-prone, being taken to hospital in fifteen of the then seventeen
first-class counties. ==Coaching career and family==