County Championship 4th (W9, L1, D18)
Captain Arthur Carr
The County fell from the position of Champion County to fourth place, despite losing only one championship game.
The batting owed very much to ‘Dodge’ Whysall. He was the backbone of the team, scoring over 2,000 runs for the fifth year in succession, including 8 centuries – four in consecutive innings. Making two centuries in one match, and his record score of 248 v Northants, he finished the season with an average of over 51.
He was well supported by George Gunn and Willis Walker who each scored over 1,000 runs while Payton, with fewer opportunities, missed that distinction by a single run.
On the whole, the bowling was below expectation. For the first time in many years no Notts bowler took 100 wickets, though Larwood, Sam Staples and Voce had good performances to their credit. Were it not for injury, Larwood – who took 93 wickets at the remarkable average of 13.10 in just 19 First-Class games – would surely have made the hundred.
It is quite possible that Whysall might have broken more records but the final Nottinghamshire match of 1930 v Worcestershire at Trent Bridge proved to be his last in First-Class cricket.
Within a few weeks of this match an accident befell Whysall which proved fatal. He slipped whilst at a dance injuring his elbow, septicaemia resulted and though given a blood transfusion, he died in hospital in Nottingham on 11 November. He was just 43 years old.
His funeral in Mansfield was the largest in living memory in that town, and he was buried in the cemetery there.
The Committee set the Kent Match of 1931 for the benefit of his widow and children. Sir Julien Cahn also promised the gate money taken at the match between his team and New Zealand due to take place on his Loughborough Rd. Ground in September.
In June the first of the summer’s Test Matches was played at Trent Bridge. From every point of view the match was a success. It was a very exciting game which England won. The attendance was more than satisfactory and the spectators could watch the game in comfort in all parts of the ground. The Committee reported that they had made ‘the ground in all respects worthy of international cricket [and] justified the expenditure incurred and has received the highest praise in all quarters. Except Lords there is now no better equipped ground in the country’.
Larwood played in the Test Matches at Trent Bridge, Leeds and the Oval, while he was selected to play in the match at Lords, but did not play as he was considered unfit on the morning of the match. Whysall had the honour of playing in the last Test Match at the Oval. Bill Voce was chosen as a member of the MCC to tour of South Africa.
The county season opened with a rain-affected draw at home to Sussex, notable mainly for Whysall making the first of his eight First-Class centuries in the season and Sam Staples taking 6-58. The theme of rain and drawn games was to be played out all summer, with thirteen consecutive draws including matches against Oxford University and the touring Australians.
Somerset and Kent were each despatched by an innings in back-to-back home games. These were followed by the only defeat of 1930, away to Hampshire. The all-rounder Jack Newman dominated the match, taking five wickets in each innings; 5-18 as Notts were skittled for 69 and 5-66 as they posted 226 second time around. Hampshire made 125 and 174-5 to win by five wickets.
In a low-scoring game, Leicestershire were beaten by 180 runs at Aylestone Road. Back at Trent Bridge, Notts made short work of Glamorgan, winning by an innings and 126 runs.
Two away fixtures followed with a draw against Lancashire at Old Trafford and a 10-wickjet win over Worcestershire at New Road.
At home to Surrey, the visitors racked up 501, with Andrew Sadham (152) and Andy Ducat (218) sharing a second wicket partnership of 281. Notts, despite making 264 (Payton 109) were asked to follow on and were 236-7 when play ended.
Nottinghamshire completed the double over Glamorgan, winning at Cardiff Arms Park by seven wickets. That match was at the end of June and there was not another positive result for Notts until a win over Leicestershire in August.
Championship matches away at Somerset and home to Yorkshire lost time to the rain and then Oxford University came to Trent Bridge for a game that produced no rain but a glut of runs.
In that era, University teams were First-Class matches and they fielded strong sides – indeed, of the Oxford side in June 1930, nine went on to play county cricket and the other two played regularly in Minor Counties competitions. Two internationals – spinner Ian Peebles (later even better known as a cricket writer) and the Nawab of Pataudi were in the eleven.
One of the lesser-known undergraduates, Denis Moore, made 148 out of an impressive 513 in reply to the home side’s 216, leaving Notts a tough task in the second innings. They responded with 440-6 with Whysall, Walker and keeper Ben Lilley all contributing tons for a determined draw.
‘Dodge’ Whysall and Willis Walker made a hundred each in the next game too, in a second wicket partnership that contributed 256 to an eventual total of 511. En route to his 117, Whysall notched up 1,000 runs for the season and 18,000 career runs as he added 101no in the second innings.
He made four centuries in three games when he scored 120 against the touring Australians, in another high-scoring drawn fixture. And it was four matches in row when he took 158 off the Warwickshire attack at Edgbaston.
Draws followed against Derbyshire, Middlesex, Sussex, Middlesex again (Larwood 8-51), Warwickshire at home, Surrey, and Kent before a win broke the sequence., Notts beating Leicestershire by 9 wickets.
Then followed yet three more drawn matches, starting with a run riot against Northamptonshire at Trent Bridge. The visitors made 405 with tons from Fred Bakewell and Arthur Cox to which Notts answered with 484, Whysall rounding off a magnificent season with a career-best 248.
Weather certainly saved Notts away at Bradford – they made 153 and Yorkshire responded with 451, built around Arthur Mitchell’s 176; when stumps were drawn, Notts were at a perilous 37-5!
Rain again curtailed the match with Lancashire and the season ended with two more victories. Northants were beaten by 302 runs – Larwood scoring 101no (equalling his best to date) and Sam Staples taking 7-36.
Finally, Worcestershire were defeated by 10 wickets at Trent Bridge, even though Notts only made 132 in their first innings (for a slender 15-run lead); the visitors were demolished by Larwood 8-33 and made just 60. George Gunn and Whysall soon eased past the required 46 runs.
During the season there were a number of First-Class debutants including Ramsay Cox, Sydney Copley (whose only match was the University game), George Robinson and Jack Reddish who had a much more lauded career in football, playing for Tottenham, Lincoln City and Dundee as well as Notts County.
Also making their first appearance in 1930 were two players that figured greatly in later seasons. Stuart Rhodes played for five seasons, sharing the captaincy with George Heane in 1935 when Arthur Carr stepped down.
Most significantly, Joe Hardstaff junior played his first handful of games; if a return of 53no from those three matches didn’t exactly foretell of his record, it wasn’t long before he outshone his father, Joe senior, and became one of Nottinghamshire’s most prolific and most stylish batters. When he retired in 1955, he had made more runs for Nottinghamshire than anyone else, with centuries against all the first-class counties other than his own.
In the early part of October, the death was announced of E F Heane of Worksop. He was the member of the Club Committee, representing the Bassetlaw Parliamentary Division and was the father of George Heane who was to captain the County in 1935 (jointly with Stuart Rhodes) and from 1936-1946.
November 2024
Scorecards and stats can be seen here