County Championship 5th (W10, D12, L6)
Captain Reg Simpson
A wet summer was redeemed for Nottinghamshire by the bowling of Bruce Dooland, who set a county record with 181 First-Class wickets (at a miserly 14.96), a seasonal total that will surely never be beaten.
Thanks largely to the bowling attack – Dooland was well supported by the veteran Arthur Jepson and by Gamini Goonasena and Colin Matthews – the county rose from 8th in 1953 to 5th in the Championship table, the best result for many years.
It might have been even better had the batting matched the bowling but returns were thin. Only John Clay and Cyril Poole reached 1,000 runs for the season and the best average, by Joe Hardstaff, was just 35.66.
There was no sign of that meagre batting return in the first game. Reg Simpson opened the batting, and his season, with 147 v Somerset that was to prove the highest score for Notts all summer. The visitors were beaten by an innings and 130 runs, the third successive innings victory over the West Countrymen.
Notts were dismissed cheaply twice – 111 and 148 – to lose by seven wickets to Middlesex at Lord’s but picked up again back at Trent Bridge. Essex were the visitors and ran into Dooland at his most irresistible; the Aussie spinners took 16-83 in the match (eight in each innings), his career-best and the fourth in Nottinghamshire’s all-time lists. Notts won by an innings and 88 runs.
Jack Kelley made his maiden First-Class ton, 113, in the home draw with Sussex, a match that saw the final First-Class appearance of the veteran fast bowler Harold Butler. He retired with 952 wickets at 24.44 and just two Tests – despite twelve wickets at just 17.91 in those two matches.
Somerset found some redemption in the return fixture at Taunton, winning by ten wickets in match in which the highest score was Maurice Tremlett’s 71. Despite two sporting declarations, the away game against Northamptonshire was drawn; Dooland was, for once, outbowled, his 6-58 being eclipsed by George Tribe’s 7-68 for the hosts.
Cyril Poole’s 103 and a further ten wickets for Dooland were the highlights of a seven wicket win over Kent at Trent Bridge. Rain meant that Peter May’s 211 for Surrey counted for nothing in a damp draw; Mervyn Winfield, who would play more than 170 games for Notts over the next twelve seasons, made his First-Class debut.
Rain also truncated the draw with Essex at Brentwood; in the next match, also drawn, Notts recovered from being asked to follow-on by Warwickshire at Edgbaston to register 217-5 and save the game.
Bruce Dooland was the key figure in a six-wicket home win over Worcestershire, taking eleven wickets in the match.
The next visitors to Trent Bridge were Pakistan who – primarily thanks to Fazal Mahmood’s 8-66 and 3-39 – won comfortably by eight wickets. The tourists were back a fortnight later to face England in the second Test and were confounded by a rejuvenated Dennis Compton.
In his 100th Test innings, with a ‘dodgy’ knee and seven years after his heyday, Compton rolled back the clock and made 278 in almost even time; he hit 34 boundaries and, remarkably by 21st century statistics, just one six. His innings remains the highest Test score at Trent Bridge more than seventy years later. Reg Simpson's 101, made on his home ground, was scarcely mentioned - even by the Trent Bridge faithful.
Back on the Championship trail, Notts hosted Glamorgan for whom Bernard Hedges made 129 as the visitors won by 40 runs; Dooland, almost inevitably, took eleven wickets in the match.
It was with bat in hand that Dooland made the news in a win away to Hampshire, hitting 70 in Notts first innings and passing 3,000 career runs in the process. He also took nine wickets as Notts won by 10 wickets.
A draw at the Brush Ground, Loughborough, was notable for three personal milestones; John Clay and Ron Giles each passed 4,000 First-Class runs and Freddie Stocks reached 8,000 runs.
Arthur Milton’s 111 and a Notts collapse to 78 all out ensured a win for Gloucestershire at Bristol by an innings and 45 runs.
The fluctuating nature of Notts’s season was typified by a string win in the next away match – beating Sussex by 4 wickets at Hastings, despite Jim Parks making 135 to help the hosts to a first innings lead of 64. A second innings declaration left Notts chasing 264, which they reached for the loss of six wickets.
Lancashire’s Geoff Edrich made his highest career score of 167 (and 84 in the second innings) but could not prevent the match ending in a draw at Old Trafford.
For the second season in succession, Notts beat Yorkshire at Trent Bridge – Eric Martin’s 106 and the sharing of wickets between Goonasena and Dooland saw Notts home by an innings and 82 runs.
An abbreviated game against Hamshire at Trent Bridge saw the visitors hanging on at 89-7 when the match closed as yet another draw. Similarly, the draw versus Derbyshire at Ilkeston saw almost no play on day two.
Yet again it was the spin of Bruce Dooland that settled the game against Leicestershire; he took 8-45 and 5-114 as Notts won by 18 runs. Pace rather than spin was the order of the day at The Oval as Surrey opening bowlers Peter Loader and Alec Bedser ran through Nottinghamshire, dismissing them for 73 and 115 to cement a ten-wicket win.
There was no play on the final day against Lancashire at home, ensuring one more draw; Ken Smales’s season best of 5-33 the highlight for Notts. Across the Pennines at Bradford, another draw followed. Len Hutton’s 149 enabled Yorkshire to declare at 302-5 but that was it…the next two days were washed out.
Goonasena and Dooland combined to dismiss Warwickshire twice as Nottinghamshire won by an innings and 16 runs at Trent Bridge. In keeping with the up-and-down nature of results in this season, Notts lost to Kent at Dover; in a low-scoring game, the home side won by two wickets.
Back home for the final two fixtures of the season, Notts draw one and won one. Against Derbyshire, it was yet another third day lost to rain that guaranteed the draw.
The final win was achieved over Northamptonshire, even though Jock Livingston made 201 in the visitors’ 333 all out. Notts replied with 261 but, not for the first time, Goonasena and Dooland ran through the second innings, dismissing Northants for 93. Set 166 to win, Nottinghamshire got home by six wickets.
At the end of the season it was reported that Charlie Harris, for so long a Nottinghamshire stalwart and part of a successful opening partnership with Walter Keeton, had died at the age of just 45. The Committee Report paid this tribute to him: “He was one of the personalities of cricket and his unfailing humour was always a was one of the personalities of cricket, and his unfailing humour was always a tonic to his side”.
January 2026
Scorecards and stats can be seen here