County Championship 15th (W4, D12, L12)
Captain AJ Corran
AJ Corran’s first season as captain brought some measure of improvement, with the club climbing two places off the bottom of the Championship table; but four wins from 28 matches, the same as in 1961, was disappointing.
The most notable feature of the batting was that Reg Simpson, who played only 11 matches, finished top of the national averages with 54.18, even though he missed out on 1,000 runs for the season. He did pass 30,000 First-Class runs, a figure only matched for Notts (at that time) by George Gunn and Joe Hardstaff jnr.
That 1,000-run mark was topped by three Notts batters – Norman Hill, Mervyn Winfield and Maurice Hill; Norman Hill made the season’s top score, 193, away to Hampshire.
The bowling was less effective, not least because ‘Bomber’ Wells could not replicate his form of the two preceding seasons and finished with 59 wickets. Ian Davison topped the bowling stats with 77 wickets at 27.35 and the season’s best of 7-28, against Derbyshire.
The season started with a loss to Sussex by 113 runs, Notts failing to pass 200 in either innings. Davison took 5-21 as Notts beat Glamorganshire at St Helen’s, Swansea; Winfield, with 134, posted the first century of the summer.
Notts were not to win again until the end of June and did not win at Trent Bridge until early August.
At home to Derbyshire, Davison’s seven wicket haul was not enough to overcome the loss of playing time and the match was drawn.
Six second innings wickets for Jack Bannister decided Warwickshire’s 10-wicket win at Trent Bridge. Bannister, who was one of the founders of the Professional Cricketers Association, had a long career as a summariser on Test Match Special.
Low scores and the third day lost to rain meant a rather dull draw at home to Essex followed by a third consecutive home game, against Worcestershire. Notts were skittled for just 73 in the second innings, to lose by nine wickets. Jim Standen, perhaps better-known for his career in football – goalkeeper for Arsenal and Luton Town and winner of the FA Cup with West Ham – took nine wickets, 3-52 and 6-32, with his medium pacers.
The fixture away to Hampshire at Portsmouth was drawn; Notts then moved along the South Coast to Eastbourne where they lost to Sussex by eight wickets, this despite Norman Hill’s tremendous first innings knock of 193.
Alan Oakman and Ted Dexter made tons for the home side and Dexter then chipped in with four wickets as Nottinghamshire collapsed to 57 all out.
Back at Trent Bridge, a run of four matches saw three draws and a defeat. That was against Surrey, for whom John Edrich made 216, setting the tone for victory by 156 runs.
Notts then drew with Northamptonshire, Leicestershire (Maurice Hallam with exactly 200 for the visitors) and with Cambridge University. In this game, Billy Rhodes, deputising for Geoff Millman, made his highest First-Class score of 132. Wicket keeper and skipper that day for the University side was one Mike Brearley.
Away from Nottingham, the team travelled to Aigburth where they secured a 92-run victory over the hosts, Lancashire. It was low-scoring affair, Notts made 121 and 201, Lancs replied with 106 and 124; John Cotton’s first innings 6-26 was the highlight.
The next visitors to Trent Bridge were the touring Pakistan team. Left-armer Nasim-ul-Ghani, with 5-36 and 3-75, was the star performer for the visitors in a drawn game. Peter Forman posted his best First-Class score to date, just 15, in Nottinghamshire’s first innings and bettered it in the second – making 26, which was his career high.
Championship cricket resumed at Bath, where Somerset triumphed by 152 runs. Centuries from Harold Stephenson and Peter Wight underpinned the home side’s victory.
Worksop was the venue for the next home fixture, against Yorkshire. Ten wickets in the match for ‘Fiery’ Fred Trueman clinched the win by 180 runs. Brian Bolus, who was to join Notts in the close season, did not demonstrate his prowess that day – making 1 and 0!
Hampshire won at Trent Bridge by seven wickets; Notts were dismissed cheaply twice, 152 and 144, and Hampshire eased home.
The fourth Test was hosted by Trent Bridge but the loss of the first day’s play to rain meant a draw was almost inevitable; Tom Graveney and Peter Parfitt made centuries for England and Mushtaq Mohammad made 100no to anchor the tourists’ second innings.
While the Test was happening in Nottingham, the county side were on their travels – drawing three and losing one of the next four matches.
Centuries from Ken Taylor and Vic Wilson for Yorkshire and by Maurice Hill for Notts made for a high-scoring draw at Headingley. In the next game, at Ilkeston, only Derbyshire’s first innings of 313 merited attention as the game drifted to a draw.
Only two innings were possible in the match at Lord’s as rain washed out day two and ensured another draw.
At Edgbaston, Warwickshire dismissed Notts for 61 and 169 to win by an innings and 5 runs in two days. Reg Simpson’s 105 saw him pass 21,000 Championship runs and was a major factor in the draw at home to Somerset.
Yet again, the weather intervened in the match at The Oval, no play on the third day led to another draw, with Surrey.
The draw with Leicestershire at Grace Road was the closest match for many years. Notts batted first and made 234, Winfield 101, and bowled out Leicester for 199 to take a healthy first innings lead. In the second innings, Notts subsided to 78 all out, leaving Leicestershire the gettable target of 114. When stumps were drawn, they were 112-9!
Rather less tense was the very welcome first home win of the season – versus Lancashire. The visitors’ Bob Bennett was the only century maker of the game but consistent batting by Notts saw them home by four wickets.
A former England batter, Reg Simpson with 104, and a future test player, Glamorgan’s Tony Lewis, swapped hundreds in the drawn game at Trent Bridge where, again, rain washed out the final day’s play.
At Cheltenham, Notts made 104 and 149 to lose to Gloucestershire by 184 runs; the South African Ray White made the one significant innings, 102, in Gloucester’s second knock.
When Roger Prideaux made 128 as Northamptonshire declared on 326-3, a Notts win seemed unlikely but two more declarations set up a finish – Nottinghamshire made 266-4, Norman Hill 115, to win by six wickets.
The last home match of the season brought a defeat to Kent by 184 runs, Notts again subsiding in the second innings to be dismissed for 100.
The season ended as it had started, with a defeat – by eight wickets – as Worcestershire, led by Don Kenyon’s 103, made 193-2 in the second innings.
Nottinghamshire also played in a 65-over one day competition, the Midland Counties Knockout Cup, losing their only match (effectively the semi-final as there were only four team in the competition) by 31 runs to Northamptonshire at Trent Bridge. This Cup is now regarded as the forerunner of the Gillette Cup, the first limited overs tournament for all county sides, thatwas launched the following year.
As mentioned earlier, Notts announced that they had engaged Brain Bolus and his Yorkshire colleague Keith Gillhouley for the next season. ‘Both have created a good impression in First Class cricket circles’, opined the Committee, ‘and should do much to strengthen the team which is now the prime objective...’
March 2026
Scorecards and stats can be seen here