A trustworthy, affable and resourceful team member, Downton played a starring role in Middlesex's successes in the 1980s. The cricket journalist and Downton's former Middlesex teammate Simon Hughes has described Downton as "gracious, encouraging, unfailingly polite, a diplomat. The kind of chap ... who would offer the bailiffs a glass of sherry if they turned up unannounced." Hughes argues that Downton's calm personality, even when dealing with a difficult colleague, was a significant factor in Downton's success as a player and stand-in captain at Middlesex while Brearley was absent playing for England.