1935
County Championship 5th (10W, 3L, 13D, 2NR)
Captain(s) George Heane and Stuart Rhodes
The year began with the Club and Committee at odds with their own membership and one or two of their county rivals – all stemming from the issues over ‘leg theory’ bowling and the Club’s responses to complaints and representations from opponents.
In January, a well-connected cohort of Nottinghamshire members asked for an Extraordinary General Meeting of the club to hear a resolution calling for the resignation ‘en bloc’ of the whole Committee.
The group, supported by club captain Arthur Carr and fronted by club vice-president Cllr H Seely Whitby, were thwarted by the Committee deciding to call its own version of a special meeting at Nottingham’s Albert Hall.
Rumours persisted that the Notts Committee had acquiesced with a complaint from the Australian team and, with encouragement from the MCC, had withdrawn Voce from the final day of the County’s match against the tourists, claiming a ‘return of shin trouble’.
This feeling was stoked by Arthur Carr, who was not playing because of illness, stating that had he been captain, Voce would have played and bowled.
Dr George Ogg Gauld, Nottinghamshire’s Hon Secretary, said that he had examined Voce and advised him not to play.
Carr and his supporters forced a show of hands at the meeting and won the day – the Committee duly resigned and fresh elections were called.
In the event, only Arthur Carr and one other of the ‘opposition’ were elected – almost all the previous Committee was re-elected. Carr, who had lost the captaincy at the end of the 1934 season, to be replaced by joint captains, Rhodes and Heane, never played for Notts again.
Part of the case for the objectors was that the Committee had found in favour of the complainants when three counties objected to Nottinghamshire’s use of ‘direct attack’ bowling. Such was the strength of feeling elsewhere in the country, Lancashire declined to accept fixtures against Notts in 1935.
So it must have been with some relief and pleasure that the end of year report from the ‘new’ Committee could include the paragraph, ‘…Club’s relations with every First-Class county are of the friendliest nature. Everyone in the world of First-Class cricket has been desirous of assisting in restoring the amicable relations of the past, and it is due to the members of the team to say, that they have contributed largely to this happy result by their conduct both on and off the field…’
There was some reciprocal improvement on the playing side too, with the county rising from ninth to fifth place in the Championship. They lost only three games throughout the season and were undefeated at home.
The batting was strong with six players scoring more than 1,000 runs in the season and with twenty centuries scored, Joe Hardstaff leading the way with five.
Apart from the indefatigable Larwood and Voce, the bowling was less distinguished. Those two each passed 100 wickets but of the back-up bowlers only Arthur Staples, with 62 wickets, offered reliable support.
The season opened with a low-scoring draw at home to Gloucestershire, followed by the first of those three defeats.
Notts subsided against Sussex, being dismissed for 69 and 98, to lose by 338 runs. Maurice Tate, with nine wickets in the match was the chief tormentor.
George Heane led from the front against Kent at Trent Bridge, making his maiden First-Class hundred (116) as Notts won by 189 runs.
The first non-county match of the season, away at Cambridge University, was drawn, with Hugh Bartlett (later to play for both Surrey and Sussex) making 183 and the unlikely sounding Desmond Rought-Rought taking 7-100 for the students.
In a drawn fixture at home to Somerset, George Heane and Robert Winrow shared an eighth wicket stand of 220 (Heane 101, Winrow 137) that remains the highest for that wicket by a Notts pair!
Hampshire were thrashed by Notts at Trent Bridge, losing by an innings and 241 runs, due in no small part to the fact that three of the visitors were unable to bat in their second innings, leaving them 37 all out.
Against Warwickshire at Edgbaston, Notts fell foul of the home side’s spin attack; George Paine took 8-121 with his left-arm spin in the first innings and a certain Eric Hollies (to find lasting fame in 1948) bettered that with 8-67 in the second with his leg breaks. Notts unsurprisingly, lost by four wickets.
There then followed four successive drawn matches, at home to Surrey and away at Essex, Glamorgan, and Middlesex – the latter two severely curtailed by rain.
Nottinghamshire eased past Sussex at home, Larwood and Voce taking the bulk of the wickets to dismiss the visitors for 96 and 110, leaving Notts winning by an innings and 64 runs despite posting a relatively modest first innings of 270.
The third and final defeat of the season came at Ilkeston when Essex, led by 126 from Stan Worthington, won by seven wickets.
Notts got back to winning ways against Leicestershire at Loughborough, forcing the home side to follow on and winnings by an innings and 18 runs.
The next home fixture was against the South African tourists. A month earlier they had come to Trent Bridge for a Test Match that was drawn when rain prevented play on the final day. With better weather, the South Africans gave notice of their batting credentials as Herby Wade and Bruce Mitchell each made centuries in a first innings total of 512. Notts also had two centurions, Joe Hardstaff making 154 and George Vernon Gunn matching his (then) career best of exactly 100 as the match was drawn.
For the third time, Notts gained an innings victory without scoring more than 300 in their one innings. Northamptonshire, played at Peterborough, faded to 140 and 65, (Voce with ten wickets in the match) in reply to the visitors’ 250 – a winning margin of an innings and 45 runs.
Having scored his career best against the touring side, GV Gunn improved on that against Derbyshire, making 113no as Notts chased down a three wicket win to avenge their earlier defeat.
There followed a comfortable ten wicket win over Hampshire, the feature of which was a century from wicket keeper-batter Ben Lilley.
Notts played out a rain-affected draw against the eventual champions, Yorkshire, and reprised their victory over Northants with a six wicket win, Walker and Hardstaff putting on 184 for the third wicket in the first innings.
They drew again with Yorkshire, this time at Bramhall Lane, Sheffield, Walter Keeton passing 8,000 career runs in making 120; Herbert Sutcliffe and Paul Gibb also made tons for the home team.
Leicestershire were soundly beaten at Trent Bridge, losing by an innings and 37 runs; Keeton made 184, the highest score of the season for Notts, Larwood and Voce each took five wickets in an innings, Voce passing 100 for the season.
The next four matches – versus Surrey, Kent, Middlesex and Somerset were all drawn and Notts secured their final win of the summer at Worksop, beating Glamorgan by three wickets. Harold Butler had his best figures to date in this match, taking 7-66 in the second innings.
Three more draws completed the season, against Warwickshire, Gloucestershire and Essex.
Five players made their debuts for Nottinghamshire during the season – John Hall, David Jones, Joe Knowles, Granville Payton and Bill Sime.
Payton was the son of Wilf Payton, one of the stars of the Notts team in the first quarter of the century. Bill Sime – later and more formally Capt W A Sime, MBE, CMG – had a distinguished military career but also served as skipper of Notts from 1947-1950.
Aside from cricket he was a notable rugby player - initially with Bedford, whom he captained for three years, and then the East Midlands and once for Nottinghamshire. He also played in an England trial match.
A useful golfer, he reached the second round of the English Amateur Championship in 1935.
Later a barrister with chambers in Nottingham, Sime was made a QC in 1957; in 1972 he was sworn in as a circuit judge on the Midland and Oxford Circuit.
The Venerable Wilfred Ernest Granville Payton CB MA – to give him his full and grand names and titles – finished his military career as Chaplain-in-Chief to the RAF and then became vicar of Abingdon, as well as honorary chaplain to the Queen.
At the close of the season Walter Marshall retired as Ground Superintendent, the latest of a long line of appointments in the service of the Club. At his special request he was appointed caretaker of the Pavilion and continued to ‘live in’.
Scorecards and stats can be seen here
February 2025