1952
County Championship 16th (W3, D14, L11)
Captain Reg Simpson
With two more wins and one place higher than in 1951, the season was a slight – very slight – improvement but results continued to be disappointing.
Six batters managed 1,000 runs or more and of those three – Simpson, Hardstaff and Poole – had averages above 40 and there were 19 centuries scored of which Cyril Poole’s 222no was the highest.
The bowling, still reliant on the yeoman services of Arthur Jepson and Harold Butler as Notts waited for Bruce Dooland and Gamini Goonasena to quality, was less impressive. Butler took the most wickets, 75, and had the meanest average, 25.04 – the only bowler to average under thirty.
The season opened with a match against Kent at Gillingham in which Ron Giles made 124, his first First-Class hundred but he could not prevent the home wide from winning by 33 runs.
In the first home game of the season, Notts subsided to 138 and 182 (following on) as Northamptonshire completed a ten-wicket win. Only a few overs were possible on the third day of the home game against Essex, which was therefore drawn.
Notts made two more sub-200 innings scores – 165 and 198 – to lose at Old Trafford by an innings and 29 runs. Alec Bedser took six second innings wickets for 23 as Notts were skittled for 52, to lose by 210 runs.
The next six matches were all drawn. In the first of these at Northampton, Hardstaff and Freddie Stocks each scored hundreds for Notts, answered by a century for Freddie Brown.
At home to Hampshire, it was John Clay, with a career-best 192, and Poole (151) who made the bulk of the 477-4 dec in Notts first innings. No play on the final day meant a draw away to Leicestershire at Hinckley; Reg Simpson’s 163 the highlight.
Eric Martin emulated Giles by scoring his maiden First-Class ton (122) against Derbyshire at Trent Bridge, with Joe Hardstaff also making a hundred; the visitor’s Arnold Hamer made 161 in their reply.
Arthur Milton, one of the few players to have been capped by England at cricket and football, made 146 and Martin Young 111 as Gloucestershire drew at Trent Bridge. The match at Dudley versus Worcestershire was the final draw of this sequence, with centuries from Bob Broadbent for the hosts and from Joe Hardstaff for Notts the only performances of note.
Nottinghamshire secured their first win of the season and – as the Committee noted, searching for straws of comfort their ‘first win over Lancashire since the war’ – at Trent Bridge. Notts made 271 (Hardstaff 104) and 202 (Roy Tattersall 6-68) and Lancs replied with 210 (Butler 5-38) and 216 to leave a victory margin of 47 runs.
That match was in mid-June and they would not win again until the final two matches of the season in late August.
The next game was against the White Rose county at Bradford, where centuries by Ted Lester and Willie Watson set Yorkshire up for a ten-wicket win.
Reg Simpson made 216 in the draw against Sussex for whom John Langridge made his almost obligatory ton against Notts.
The Indian tourists were the next visitors and this enabled Goonasena to make his first team debut. He took one wicket and made 38 but the highlight was Cyril Poole’s record of 222no in the drawn fixture.
Back in the Championship and back on the road – to Dean Park, Bournemouth – Notts lost by seven wickets to Hampshire for whom Leo Harrison’s 153 and Jimmy Gray’s match figures of 11-158 were the key factors.
Further travels, to Edgbaston, and another heavy defeat followed. Roly Thompson, 9-65 (his career best) and 2-31 helped Warwickshire to a win by an innings and 23 runs. Yorkshire did the double over Notts with a six wicket win at Trent Bridge, with Lester again starring for them, making 178.
Brief respite from a run of heavy losses came in a draw with Middlesex at Trent Bridge where the main talking point was the final appearance in the Notts first team for Bill Voce.
The great left-armer had been coaching with Notts since his playing days and made this one last outing before standing down from that coaching role as well. He bowled in the visitors’ first innings, taking 1-53 in his 27 overs. Centuries from Hardstaff and Clay for Notts and Syd Brown for Middlesex were the main batting performances.
Cyril Poole made 219, his second First-Class double of the season, against Derbyshire but it was not enough to prevent a hefty innings and 93 run defeat. Arnold Hamer (again) made 165 and Donald Carr 116 and then Notts collapsed to 99 all out in their second innings.
Despite being dismissed for 144 in their first innings, Glamorgan recovered to bowl Notts out for 73 – the third fourth innings of under 100 in the season – with Don Shepherd taking 6-18 in a win by 53 runs.
Things were no better in the next game with eventual champions Surrey – Notts making 84 in their first innings, Bedser and Sturridge five wickets apiece, and just 51, that man Bedser 8-18 (match figures of 13-46) to give Surrey victory by an innings and 80. His second innings figures were Bedser’s career best and took him past 1,000 First-Class wickets.
That was the last loss the season as five drawn matches followed. Glamorgan drew at Trent Bridge, as did Worcestershire for whom Don Kenyon top scored with 171. At Weston-super-Mare, Notts and Somerset played out a low scoring draw; a draw of a very different character came in the return match at Trent Bridge. Centuries from Bertie Buse and Reg Simpson meant that 437 played 438 on first innings, Notts thus squeezing four points from that one run margin.
In between those games, rain meant that only 37 overs were possible at Lord’s between Notts and Middlesex.
Then came the two redemptive late season victories. Each of the first three innings against Gloucestershire at Bristol were declared; Notts making 311-6 and 264-7 and Gloucs 323-7 to set up a fourth innings chase. In the event, Peter Harvey’s 5-68 helped dismiss the home side for 122 and Notts won by 130 runs.
In the final fixture, against Warwickshire, Reg Simpson got his second double hundred of the season, exactly 200 – the ninth double of his career, which is still a Notts record. Warwicks made 361-7 dec, to which Nottinghamshire replied with 366-7 (also declared). The visitors declared again on 261-6 and Notts made the 257 needed for the loss of six wickets to win by four wickets.
January 2026
Scorecards and stats can be seen here