Peter Johnson, born on 12 November 1949 in Sherwood is a right-hand batsman and leg break bowler who made his initial impact in the game whilst still very young. When he joined the playing staff at Trent Bridge in 1975 it was said that, ‘Johnson had been the outstanding schoolboy cricketer of the late 1960s, whilst at Nottingham High School’. Indeed, he won the Cricket Society Wetherall Award for the leading all-rounder in English Schools cricket in both 1968 and 1969.
He continued his education, and his cricket, at Cambridge where he studied at Emmanuel College and gained his ‘Blue’ as a middle-order batsman; he appeared for Cambridge and the joint Oxford and Cambridge sides throughout his time at University. In his first game for Cambridge against the International Cavaliers in 1970 he made a duck – but given that he was out, as many had been, ct Godfrey Evans, b Fred Trueman, that was certainly forgivable. In fact, West Indies international Deryck Murray, batting for Cambridge but later also at Trent Bridge, was out to exactly the same combination for just three in the same innings.
Having qualified as a solicitor, Johnson had a sound foundation should his cricket career not succeed. He had made a few appearances for Notts Juniors and for the Club & Ground team before joining the first team squad and in his first year was one of just three batsmen, with Basharat Hassan and skipper Mike Smedley, to top 1,000 runs for the season. That was the only occasion that he made that particular milestone and by the end of the 1977 season he decided to retire from cricket and concentrate on his legal career. He signed off with the second hundred of his time in First-Class cricket, 106 against Yorkshire.
Johnson did, though, join Lincolnshire and he enjoyed a more fruitful time in Minor Counties cricket, playing successfully until 1987; in 1978 he added his Lincolnshire county cap to that awarded by Nottinghamshire three years earlier. He had the great pleasure of playing for Southwell alongside his son, Sam, and was at the other end when Sam made his maiden half-century. Whilst Sam continued with his cricket, representing Bedfordshire and Lincolnshire, Peter Johnson has largely concentrated on golf since finally giving up cricket.
For Notts in the County Championship Johnson scored in all 2,306 runs at 25.62 with that 106no as his best score and 16 half-centuries; in List-A he made 531 runs at 22.12 and a top score of 57no. His bowling was not much used by the first XI and he took just two wickets, at 140.50 apiece. He is an infrequent visitor to Trent Bridge but has attended several player reunions
November 2020
Nottinghamshire First-Class Number: 457
See Peter Johnson's career stats here