County Championship 4th (W13, L4, D11)
Captain Arthur Carr
The successes of the season were based, to a great extent, on the impressive bowling of Larwood and Voce, ably supported by the brothers Arthur and Sam Staples.
Harold Larwood had his best season with 149 First-Class wickets, 141 of those in the Championship, at the miserly average of 11.42. Bill Voce also took more than a hundred wickets in the summer, finishing on 123.
Each had several outstanding bowling performances, Larwood’s best being 13 wickets for 76 v Worcestershire, Voce’s 10 for 48 against Cambridge University and 10 for 35 v Leicestershire at Trent Bridge. Sam Staples in his benefit year made a welcome return to form and narrowly missed his 100 wickets. His 10 wickets for 21 versus Hampshire at Southampton was the best of his career.
Larwood and Voce well earned their places in the MCC team on the winter tour of Australia and, said the Committee, ‘brought honour to their County’. The honour was possibly diminished by the diplomatic and cricketing controversies of the ‘Bodyline’ tour but Larwood’s efforts were to become the stuff of legend.
Even they were outbowled on one historic occasion in 1932 – of which, much more later.
The leading batter was Walter Keeton, who scored over 2,000 runs in the season, making seven centuries, including two doubles; Willis Walker, Arthur Staples and Charlie Harris, who each made 1,000 runs, and Frank Shipston, who scored two centuries, are also worthy of mention.
Hosting the touring All India XI proved a great success financially; although the Indians were beaten (by 224 runs) they gave enough indication that a new Test nation was to be reckoned with. Injury meant that this game proved to be George Gunn’s last First-Class match.
In the Championship, the season began with two drawn games at home, against Sussex and Surrey. Highlight of the Sussex game was Keeton’s 142, which gave notice of his form for the summer. The Surrey game was brought to a premature halt by rain on the third day.
Bill Voce and Sam Staples took 19 of the 20 Hampshire wickets as Notts won at Southampton by 161 runs, despite collapsing to 42 all out – Trevor Bailey 7-7! Still on their travels, Notts went along the coast to Hove for a weather-affected draw with Sussex.
Keeton continued his fine early season form with his first First-Class double century making exactly 200 against Cambridge University, then watched Larwood and Voce dismiss the students for 34 and 81 as Notts cruised to a win by an innings and 267 runs.
More rain meant a draw v Middlesex at Lord’s, which Notts would have been grateful for, having been 86-7 dec and 109-4 at close; Middlesex made 186 in their only innings.
Nottinghamshire fared rather better in the next game – against Derbyshire at Trent Bridge. Another Keeton century, 108, helped Notts record 405; they then dismissed the visitors for 102 and 217 to secure a victory by an innings and 86 runs.
Somerset were dealt with in similar style, bowled out for 117and 72, leaving Notts – 351 (Walker 103) – winners by an innings and 162. The West Countrymen got immediate revenge, winning the return fixture at Taunton by 13 runs.
Back home against Hampshire, Notts got back to winning ways, bowling out the visitors for 118 and 243 in reply to their 414 (Shipston 118) – for another innings victory with 53 runs to spare.
The game with Gloucestershire at Bristol was drawn before Larwood and Voce demolished Leicestershire, bowling unchanged through both innings, evenly sharing the twenty wickets as Notts had the fifth win by an innings – there were three more to come.
The second defeat of 1932 came at Ilkeston when Derbyshire won by seven wickets, thanks largely to a ten-wicket haul for Alf Pope.
Not even a typically elegant century from Wally Hammond, who made 119 of Gloucester’s 262, could stop Notts winning again – the home side also making 262 and then 95-4 to win by six wickets.
After the home game with the All India side, Notts travelled to Worcester and won by nine wickets with Larwood and Voce again doing the damage (Larwood 8-49 and 5-27).
On the Wrong End of a Record
In the subject of ‘damage done’ to a batting side – Notts have the dubious honour of being the team to suffer the best First-Class bowling figures of all time.
On a ‘sticky dog’ pitch at Headingley on 12 July 1932, Yorkshire skipper Brian Sellers declared his side’s first innings closed even though they were still 71 behind the Notts total of 234.
Up stepped legendary slow left-armer Hedley Verity whose spell started with seven consecutive maidens. Then he took 10 wickets in 52 balls for just 10 runs – including a hat-track of Willis Walker, Charlie Harris and GV Gunn. His final, scarcely believable, figures were 19.4-16-10-10!
They are still the best figures in all First-Class cricket and unlikely, surely, to ever be equalled or beaten.
Notts were dismissed for 67 (this after the openers put on 44). Just to add symmetry to the finish, Percy Holmes and Herbert Sutcliffe knocked off the required runs for an historic ten wicket win.
At home to Essex, Nottinghamshire salved their pride with centuries from Arthur Carr and Walter Keeton to ease home by an innings and 61 runs. Larwood then took 7-57 to help Notts beat Middlesex by nine wickets, followed by a rain-hit draws with Yorkshire, Northamptonshire and Surrey.
Another draw followed away to Essex, though without help from the weather; Notts then won three matches in succession.
Larwood’s 100th Championship wicket of the season was part of 5-42 in Lancashire’s second innings helped set up a 124-run win at Trent Bridge. It was Sam Staples that held sway in the next match, away to Northants; he took twelve wickets in the match as Notts triumphed by 72 runs. Brother Arthur also made his mark in the game at Kettering - scoring nine from one ball, five all-run plus four overthrows.
At home to Glamorgan it was Keeton’s second double hundred of the summer – 242 – that set up an innings and 156 run victory, though Larwood, with ten in the match certainly contributed.
Leicestershire inflicted the third and narrowest defeat of the season, winning by one wicket, making 177-9, opener Les Berry 75no.
Keeton and Walker each made hundreds as Worcestershire were beaten by an innings and 130 runs and the season ended with two more drawn matches. In a high-scoring match at Cardiff Arms Park, Notts made 386 and 161-5 and Glamorgan 502, of which Maurice Turnbull made 205.
The weather intervened once more at Old Trafford as Lancashire and Nottinghamshire drew the last match.
There were no major changes to the Trent Bridge ground to report in 1932 but a new Bell was presented to the club by John Taylor & Co, Bell Founders of Loughborough; the old bell was placed in the Pavilion Collection.
The first Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club Year Book was specially written and compiled by Sir Home Gordon, Bart., at the insistence of Sir Julien Cahn – President for 1931 – who kindly presented copies to every member of the Club, and junior members.
F. S. Ashley Cooper, a former Secretary of the Club and a well-known authority and historian of the game, died in January.
The JA Dixon Memorial Gates appeal was launched with the proposal that the Memorial would be unveiled when the 1933 Season began.
November 2024
Scorecards and stats can be seen here