Geoffrey Clayton (3 February 1938 – 19 September 2018) was an English professional first-class and List A cricketer for Lancashire and Somerset between 1959 and 1967.
Clayton was a regular first-team player in every season in which he played first-class cricket and he was at or near to the top of the wicketkeepers' lists for most dismissals each year.
[4] On discharge, he returned to Lancashire and was brought into the first team at the start of June 1959, remaining then as first-choice wicketkeeper until he left the county at the end of the 1964 season.
[10] It could have been more, but he was dropped for the final three matches of the season, and Wisden in 1961 mentioned this as part of a short list of "perplexing" events indicating disharmony at Lancashire.
The club issued a statement: "The committee have reviewed the performance of the team both on and off the field during the current season in conjunction with a special report which had been called for.
"[13] During the 1964 Gillette cup tie against Warwickshire, in protest at the opposition's ultra defensive field placements he decided to block out, eking out 19 runs in 20 overs and leaving Lancashire well short of the target.
"[17] Moreover, in just his fourth match for his new county, against Middlesex at the Imperial Ground, Bristol, he was sent in again as nightwatchman and this time made 106, the only century of his first-class career.
Wisden noted: "The wicketkeeping of Clayton, although he was never dropped from the side, deteriorated sufficiently to decide the Executive not to offer him a further contract.
[21] There appear to have been other factors: David Foot, the Somerset County Cricket Club historian, wrote of Clayton that "he never quite integrated".