Club historian Peter Wynne-Thomas examines the careers of two players who moved to Trent Bridge from Durham
The only two players to represent Durham and then come to Nottinghamshire were John Morris and Mark Davies. The latter’s appearance last summer is memorable, since due to his bowling, Notts beat Northants at Trent Bridge by two wickets. Davies, a fast medium right arm bowler took 7- 59 in the first innings – a new record on a Championship debut for Notts and a new personal record for Davies. He also scored a valuable 35 runs, coming in at number 10. He was playing for Notts on loan and hurriedly retreated back to Durham. Born in Stockton-on-Tees, Davies had made his first-class debut in 2002.
John Morris played for Durham from 1994 to 1999, having appeared for Derbyshire from 1982 to 1993 and in that time played in three Tests for England and eight One Day Internationals. Born in Crewe, he had had trials with both Warwickshire and Lancashire prior to signing for Derbyshire. A very talented batsman, he played with nonchalant ease, having a large repertoire of strokes, but over-confidence proved his undoing too often.
Morris played just two summers at Trent Bridge. The record book shows that his greatest innings were against Derbyshire, when he hit 170 and 136 not out at Derby in 2001. He showed that he was still a formidable batsman in his final two innings in the Sunday League. He scored 102 in 109 minutes against Surrey, then 57 in 51 minutes against Leicestershire. He has rejoined the Derbyshire Club in order to revive their fortunes.
In the piece concerning Nottinghamshire players who have gone on to represent Durham, I inadvertently described John Butler of Clifton as having played for both Nottinghamshire and later for Durham. A number of reference books do state this, but it is incorrect. The John Butler who played successfully for Durham between 1898 and 1905 came, not from Clifton, but Ruddington. He was born in the village in September 1874 and is described as a medium pace bowler with occasional off breaks and a right hand batsman. He was appointed a professional for the Burnmoor Club in Durham in 1898 and as a result of that appointment moved to Durham and played for the county in the early years of the Minor Counties Championship. He hit his only century for Durham on his last appearance v Glamorgan at West Hartlepool in 1905. Curiously his first appearance for Durham seems to have been against Nottinghamshire in 1898, when he failed to score in his only innings. This Ruddington John Butler never played for Notts. It is believed that he died in 1933.