Officially, he was Ralph James Clough MLA, but it was a rarity to find anyone who preferred Ralph to the more knockabout ‘Mick’. It was a throwback to his father, Michael Roland Gordon Clough—‘little Mick’. Mick Clough was a cricket lover from a cricket-loving family. His next greatest love was the Australian Labor Party. Those with ‘an eye for a cricketer’ thought him an enormous talent, a seriously dangerous right-hand batsman, but his early cricket career was limited because he lacked the discipline to make the most of his talent. “I preferred to go in search of good times,” he confessed to his sons Peter and David, when advising them on the best way forward in the game. A commonly-told family story recounts an offer from a Perth Grade Club “to come and play with our Second Grade team”. Mick rejected it to play Park cricket with the team from the Telegraphist’s Office—because they had a keg after every game.
