County Championship 16th (W4, L16, D7)
Captain Reg Simpson
It is a salutary reminder of the parlous position of Nottinghamshire cricket in this era that the 1960 Committee Report found some cold comfort that, ‘they managed to vacate the bottom position in the Championship table’!
In truth, the team lost more matches that any other county side that summer, opening their season with a disappointing defeat – by the health margin of 161 runs – to the Cambridge University XI at Fenner’s.
That rather set the tone and the first five Championship fixtures were all lost by similarly large margins.
One consolation for the Committee and the club’s supporters was the form of Bryan ‘Bomber’ Wells, recruited in the close season to boost the bowling attack. ‘Bomber’ took nine wickets in that loss to Cambridge and continued in that vein.
Bowling more overs than any other player in the country (1354.3) he took 120 wickets at a cost of 24.25 each. In addition he fielded admirably, making some excellent catches.
Somerset won the first match – at Trent Bridge – by 119 runs; Sussex won by 10 wickets at Hove, despite a fighting 133 from Cyril Poole in Notts second innings. That 133 proved to be his highest score of the season.
Poole finished the season with 1,701 runs at 40.50 – no other Notts batter averaged over thirty or came with 300 runs of his tally; Simpson, John Springall and Mervyn Winfield each made more than 1,000 runs though the latter two achieved this without scoring a century.
Back at Trent Bridge, Notts lost to Essex by five wickets, despite the first innings total being very close, 227 against the visitors’ 230. Against Middlesex at Lord’s Notts were required to follow on and the home side duly won by 9 wickets.
Some respite followed with a home game against the South African tourists (who were to return later for the Third Test). The most notable feature of the draw in the county game was the no-balling of the controversial South African bowler Geoff Griffin by Umpires Bartley and Copson. In all, Griffin was called five times in the first innings and further three when Notts batted again.
Unsurprisingly, he was not in the eleven that contested the Trent Bridge Test, which was won by England by eight wickets – due in no small measure to the bowling of Fred Trueman who took nine wickets in the match.
Heartened by the draw against the tourists, Nottinghamshire went to the Recreation Ground, Bath, and enacted some revenge for the earlier defeat by beating Somerset by five wickets; ‘Bomber’ Wells and John Springall took eight wickets apiece.
The uplift was not sustained and Surrey won comfortably at Trent Bridge – where, incidentally, Notts failed to win a single game that season – despite centuries from Norman Hill and Cyril Poole; Hill’s 171 was to prove a career-best.
The weather intervened to leave Notts with a draw at Bristol against Gloucestershire and at home to Warwickshire, in which game Maurice Hill made his only century of the season, 109.
Notts played a home match at Worksop against Yorkshire but suffered a trouncing, going down by an innings and 55 runs. The match against Leicestershire at Loughborough was drawn and was followed by the most dramatic game of the year.
At home to Sussex, Notts made 239-7 dec – Simpson 102 – in reply to the visitors’ 177 in first innings. Sussex replied with a declaration of their own, 276-5 (Ken Suttle 111) to set Notts 215 to win.
After a decent half-century opening partnership between Norman Hill and Winfield, the batting could not sustain a similar pairing until Springall and Geoff Millman shared 43 for the ninth wicket. That left Tom Atkinson to see out the innings alongside Springall. Agonisingly, Atkinson was LBW to Ian Thompsonon 213, to leave Sussex the winners by one run!
This remains the narrowest defeat in Nottinghamshire’s First-Class history.
With the aid three drawn matches, Notts then went on a run of four matches without defeat. Reg Simpson made 120 and passed 28,000 career runs in the draw against Leicestershire; the away game at Portsmouth against Hampshire was also a draw.
Nottinghamshire’s second win came at St Helen’s Swansea, with a 67-run defeat of Glamorganshire. Wells took eleven wickets in the match, including the remarkable second innings figures of 5-11 as Notts won inside two days.
A third successive away game, against Warwickshire at Coventry, was drawn with Geoff Millman’s 105 the highlight for Notts.
Returning home to Trent Bridge did nothing for Notts fortunes with heaviest defeat – an innings and 107 runs – to Hampshire. Jimmy Gray, with 124, and the evergreen Derek Shackleton with 10-70 in the match ensured a comfortable away win.
That was the first of seven consecutive losses. Lancashire triumphed by eight wickets at Trent Bridge; Derbyshire won by 116 runs at Ilkeston despite making only 105 in their first innings and Tom Atkinson taking a career-best 6-61 in their second.
Worcestershire won, by an innings and 31 runs, within two days and the return match with Surrey was lost by 10 wickets. Mickey Stewart and David Fletcher each made tons as the home side rattled up 342-4 dec; Notts replied with 184 and, following-on, 182 (Peter Loader 6-51) to leave John Edrich and Ken Barrington to knock off the required 25 to win.
At Scarborough, Yorkshire inflicted a second heavy defeat on Notts, winning by as innings and 57 runs. Brian Close made 184 – the highest of his three hundreds against Notts – and Trueman took 6-39 in the second innings.
The batting of Ron Headley, a member of that great cricketing dynasty, who made 107, and the bowling of Norman Gifford who took 6-32 in Notts second innings ensured that Worcestershire also ‘did the double’ over Notts, winning by 217 runs.
A welcome victory came at Northampton where the home side was dismissed for 147, enabling Notts to take a narrow first innings lead with 180 all out. When Northants batted again, they made 220-6 dec; Notts eased to 188-4 to secure a six-wicket win.
Derbyshire won by nine wickets at Trent Bridge as seamer Les Jackson took 6-51 to help bowl Notts out for just 97 in the second innings.
Geoff Millman’s 131no – a career-best – was not enough to prevent Kent from winning by 2 wickets at Trent Bridge; that was the last defeat of the season with a win and two draws in the last three matches.
Notts beat Lancashire at Southport by two wickets, Atkinson and Wells taking thirteen wickets between them, ‘Bomber’ capturing his 100th wicket of the season in the home side’s first innings.
Two home games, both drawn, completed the disappointing season. No play on Day One ensured the draw with Northamptonshire and the final fixture, against Glamorganshire, was no play on Day Two – a suitable dismal end to Notts’s season.
At the end of the summer, Reg Simpson announced that he was relinquishing the captaincy and the Committee invited John Clay to succeed him for the 1961 season. This would make Clay the first professional captain of Nottinghamshire since Mordecai Sherwin in the 1890s.
AJ Corran, who joined Notts from Oxford University and Norfolk, was seen as a potential captain but as he would not be available until June, the offer was made to John Clay.
Tom Atkinson chose to take up an appointment with the West of Scotland CC and Vince Lindo’s contract was not renewed.
In 1961 two county matches, Somerset and Lancashire, were to be played on the Worksop ground, and the game with Sussex staged on the home ground of the Steetley Company, Shireoaks.
March 2026
Scorecards and stats can be seen here