County Championship 3rd (W 13, D 16, L 3)
Captain Arthur Carr
In retrospect, the season can be seen as a success, even though Notts finished third in the County Championship to Lancashire and Kent, against second in 1927.
For the first time, all the First-Class Counties were met – Somerset being seen at Trent Bridge for the first time since 1894; Kent were handsomely beaten twice, but Notts lost to Sussex at Trent Bridge by an innings, and to Surrey, while the Middlesex match at Lords ended in a defeat by 13 runs.
Notts’ batting was very strong in 1928, eight of the side scoring one or more centuries. For the third year in succession, Whysall, Payton and George Gunn headed the County averages, Whysall scoring over 2,500 runs with nine centuries; George Gunn six centuries; while Payton – although missing several matches – was high in the averages and scored over 1,000 runs.
One of those making a hundred was Harold Larwood, who scored the first of his three career centuries – 101no – versus Gloucestershire at the Wagon Works Ground in Gloucester.
The bowling was also commendably strong, the Committee suggesting that ‘no county in England possessed an attack so varied’ – Larwood, Sam Staples, and Barratt each taking over 100 wickets.
Harold Larwood, now thoroughly fit after an operation in the winter, again headed the English averages, while Staples and Barratt had a large share in the season’s success. Len Richmond, in fewer matches, took 66 wickets. Bill Voce justified his place in the side by taking 56 wickets at moderate cost.
But the feature of the season was the form of Fred Barratt who, in his benefit year, enjoyed a splendid personal triumph, scoring over 1,000 runs and taking over 100 wickets. He made his career best 139no against Warwickshire at Coventry – one of four century makers in a then record 656-3 declared.
Larwood and Sam Staples were selected for the MCC side to go to Australia; Staples played little part in the tour as a result of illness but Larwood played in all five Tests, taking 18 wickets. In 2023, ‘Lol’ was posthumously awarded the Wisden Trophy for an Individual Test Performance for 1928 when he ‘Set the tone for the series with 70 and 6-32 as Australia – facing a total of 521 – subsided for 122.’
The West Indies touring XI appeared at Trent Bridge in July, the match ending in a draw. The fixture was historic by the visit of King George V and Queen Mary on the concluding day of the match, when the players of both teams were presented. This was the first occasion on which the King and Queen had visited a cricket ground outside London.
In that match, George Vernon Gunn, son of George, made his First-Class debut for Nottinghamshire, the first of more than 300 games for the County.
The other debutant that season was another player to have a long and prosperous career, Charlie Harris. He took a while to establish himself but once settled, he formed a record-breaking opening partnership with Walter Keeton with whom he made 45 three-figure opening stands.
Harris played two games in 1928 and in the final match of the season, when he was deputising for Sam Staples who was unwell, he joined Ben Lilley in an unlikely opening pair faced with the onerous task of scoring the two runs needed for victory – in the end, neither player scored, the winning runs coming in byes from the first ball of occasional off-break bowler Maurice Turnbull’s over.
Changes were planned for 1929 when, by agreement, each County was to play the same number of matches, 28, in the Championship programme, thus doing away with the percentage system of scoring.
Before the season opened, the death was announced of the newly elected President, Lt Col Frank Seely; Lt Col. R. Leslie Birkin, consented to become President for the year in his place.
Scorecards and stats can be seen here
October 2024