He was a fine deep fielder, and was said to be an excellent judge of a high catch, but did little bowling: his only really significant contribution with the ball came in 1896, when he took 5–42 against South of England.

Denton was born in Wakefield, Yorkshire, and showed promise as a teenager, scoring a half-century in a Colts game in 1892.

He made just one fifty in ten innings, and was again dropped from the side, but nevertheless played five more matches for England on a second and final tour of South Africa, in 1909/10.

In the third Test at Johannesburg he made 104 at about a run a minute, but in no other innings did he even pass 30, and his England career came to a permanent end.

He retired at the end of that year, and though afflicted by ill-health for a time, recovered enough to stand as a first-class umpire regularly from 1925 to 1930, and in occasional matches until 1937.