County Championship 1st (W14, D10, L2, NR2)
Captain Arthur Carr
Twenty-two years after AO Jones had led Nottinghamshire to the top of the County Championship, another Arthur – Arthur Carr – skippered the side to their second Championship title of the 20th Century.
Notts may have benefitted from changes to the playing conditions but they were worthy winners, albeit that the title was only confirmed in the last match of the season.
A new method of deciding the Championship was introduced where all counties played 28 matches with the team with the most points being declared winners instead of the previous system of calculating the percentage of points gained against possible points available.
In the previous year, for instance, Notts, who finished third, had played the most matches, 31, whilst Somerset played only 23.
The other, subtler change for 1929 was that the size of the wickets was, marginally, increased – being higher and wider by one inch.
Between 1929 and 1933, county authorities conducted a trial in which a batter could be lbw if he had hit the ball onto his pads – not an experiment that is likely to ever be repeated!
In addition to the 28 Championship games, Notts played the South African tourists, both Universities, and home and away non-League County fixtures with Essex. The season ended with the ‘Champions v The Rest’ match at The Oval.
Ther success of 1929 was built on some very sound batting – ‘Dodge’ Whysall again being at the top of the averages, scoring in all matches more runs than anyone in England except Wooley and being tenth in the English averages.
Wilf Payton and George Gunn – who helped win the championship in 1907 – Willis Walker, skipper Arthur Carr and Arthur Staples each passed one thousand First-Class runs, while six of the team scored one or more centuries. Arthur Staples had claims to be considered the all-rounder of the side, scoring 1,205 runs and taking 82 wickets.
Carr personally had a good season – scoring four centuries – his 194 v. South Africa at Trent Bridge being a feature of the season, and he led the side with skill and judgment. His form earned him selection as Captain of England v South Africa.
The bowling was equally strong, led by Frank Barrett who took 123 First-Class wickets; Larwood and Bill Voce also passed 100 wickets for the season.
During this famous season, George Gunn celebrated his 50th birthday at Worcester on 13 June by scoring 164 not out. To mark the occasion, a chiming clock was given by the Committee and publicly presented to Gunn by the Lord Mayor during the return match with Worcester at Trent Bridge.
To celebrate the winning of the Championship, the Lord Mayor of Nottingham (Ald A R Atkey) gave a banquet in the new Council House. Among the guests were the present team as well as many of those who were involved in the Championship Eleven of 1907.
On the field, the season opener was a friendly at home to Essex which Notts won easily, with debutant Dennis Bland contributing three wickets to a 92-run victory. Bland played for Notts between 1929-34 as left-arm spinner but his service to the Club went well beyond his playing days.
He was a great supporter of Notts Cricket Lovers Society, being for many years the Chairman and latterly President. Bland also came to Notts Players Reunions until he was very frail.
In the first Championship game, George Gunn made 104 – on the way passing 30,000 career runs – as Notts drew with Sussex.
Kent were comfortably beaten, Carr making 123, as were Surrey who had to follow-on. Notts made 411, Walker 115, and the visitors made 241 and 255; Notts won by eight wickets.
With drawn matches away at both Oxford and Cambridge Universities in May, it was not until their seventh First-Class fixture of the year that Notts played an away Championship game. And might have wished they hadn’t.
Despite 124 from Whysall, Notts could muster only 246 in their first innings to which Middlesex replied with 375; batting a second time, Notts made 179, Walter Robins taking 6-53, and the home side knocked off the required runs for a nine-wicket win.
Back at Trent Bridge, Somerset were beaten by an innings and 10 runs, even though Notts only mustered 255 batting first. Larwood and Barrett shared five wickets apiece to dismiss the visitors for 80 in the first innings.
After drawing at home to Leicestershire, Notts made a return visit to Essex, playing at the Garrison Ground in Colchester and emerged victors by five wickets in a low-scoring game.
Revenge over Middlesex, by an innings and 90 runs followed. Nottinghamshire made 387, Barrett top-scoring with 90no batting at nine. He then took six first innings wickets and a further three when the visitors followed-on to mark a truly impressive all-round performance.
Rain spoilt the match at Worcester but not before George Gunn had ‘celebrated’ his 50th in style. Yorkshire inflected the second, and final, defeat of the Championship at Bramhall Lane, winning a low scoring game by five wickets, Wilfred Rhodes taking eleven wickets in the match.
Notts were not to lose again until the season closer of the Champions v The Rest, which they lost by eight runs, just failing to chase down 317 to win. This against a side with a top three of Jack Hobbs, Andrew Sandham and Frank Woolley.
Against Glamorgan at Trent Bridge, they recorded the second biggest winning margin in the Club’s history – and innings and 327 runs!
Notts made 512, Gunn and Payton with centuries; Larwood, match figures of 11-73 and Barrett with 7-71 demolished the visitors who made 107 and 78.
The Welsh side fared little better in the return game, losing by an innings and 121. With neither Larwood nor Barrett in the Notts eleven, they must have hoped for some relief, only to meet Sam Staples in top form, taking 10-83 in the match. Nine of the county’s fourteen wins in the league were by an innings.
The match that clinched the title was something of an anti-climax, with neither first innings completed in the draw against Derbyshire at Ilkeston.
Shortly after the season closed, Harry Coxon, who had been County Scorer for over 50 years, died at his home in West Bridgford near to the ground he served so well.
That ground had seen a few changes during 1929 and into the following year. As the Committee explained to members: “A very large and comprehensive scheme of improvements and additions have been undertaken by your Committee and is now in progress. A new Secretary’s office and Staff Room has been built and the old West Wing Members’ Stand has been largely demolished and a stand with an upper open tier is being erected in its place.
“New and improved seating for upwards of 3000 people is provided for on the ground floor of the big covered stand (from about George Parr’s tree to the first Concrete Stand). The new part of this Stand, seating for about 1,500, will have the new and comfortable seating. Similar seating is also arranged for 750 on the Fox Road Stand.”
November 2024
Scorecards and stats can be seen here