Members and supporters arriving at Trent Bridge regularly pass the most lasting contribution made to the club by a player who made only a handful of First-Class appearsances. The Dixon Gates, raised by public subscription as a memorial to former captain and county stalwart John Auger Dixon, were designed by local architect Harry Goodall. The inscription, incidentally, was written by noted cricket writer and essayist E V Lucas.
Born in Nottingham on 17 January 1877, Harry Hornby Goodall was a good club-class right-hand batsman, mainly with Forest Amateurs CC, being captain of that club for some seasons. He attended St John’s College, Oxford. In April 1899 he hit the highest score (31) for the XXII Colts and was then selected for the match v Yorkshire Colts. He made 40 in a three-day non-First-Class friendly versus the West Indians at Trent Bridge in July 1900. He made his First-Class debut for Notts v Leicestershire at Aylestone Road, Leicester on 3, 4 and 5 July, scoring 13 and 20. Later that season he played in the Essex fixture at Leyton. Three seasons later he reappeared in three games, all in August – at Leyton once more, where he made a career best score of 26, versus Middlesex at Trent Bridge and finally at Derby. In five First-Class matches he had scored 92 runs @15.33.
He was the author of Records of the Nottingham Forest Amateurs CC printed in 1902. In addition to the Dixon Gates, Goodall designed the double-decker Radcliffe Road and West Wing stands built between the wars at Trent Bridge. In 1911 he emigrated to Canada and fought with the Canadian Expeditionary Force in the First World War, being wounded in the second battle of Ypres. In 1918 he returned to live in Nottingham. He served on the Notts CCC Committee between 1922 and 1945.
Harry Goodall died at Beeston on 20 February 1961 aged 84 years.
May 2020
Nottinghamshire First-Class Number: 274