County Championship 17th (last) W4; D4; L20
Captain John Clay
The Committee probably got their summary of another disappointing season spot on: ‘The season of 1961 was one of disappointment for the Club in so far as the team finished bottom of the County Championship Table once again.
‘To supporters of the Club this was not a true reflection of the cricket which the team endeavoured to play. It may be said that had they not attempted to obtain a result they would not have lost so many games.’
There were changes to the playing conditions – the follow-on was abolished in the County Championship, when play took place on the first day of matches and teams were able to forfeit their second innings, but none did so.
It is not clear how much this affected Nottinghamshire’s results by the Committee did offer the view that, ‘the defeat by Lancashire at Worksop may be attributed to the suspension of the ‘Follow-on’ rule.’
A pre-season friendly (if such a thing is possible with near neighbours) against Derbyshire rather set the tone for the summer. Rain meant there was no play on Day One and when Notts batted, they were dismissed for just 119. Derbyshire made 217-8 as the game ended in a draw.
The first Championship match was also drawn. Notts made a paltry 67 in their first innings but were rescued by Norman Hill’s 111 to hold on at 183-7 at stumps.
In the away game at Worcester, the run of low first innings continued, Notts all out for 138, and the home side eased to victory by 10 wickets.
Notts met Derbyshire again and improved on their earlier performances by scoring 280 – built around 109 from Mervyn Winfield – but could not prevent the visitors from winning by seven wickets, Donald Carr making 143.
Away to Yorkshire at Hull, Notts gave a First-Class debut to Billy Rhodes, born in Bradford but with only one season in Yorkshire’s juniors prior to moving south. Rhodes made 38 and 14 and was one of six second innings victims of Raymond Illingworth, whose bowling took the Tykes to a 90-run win.
Nottinghamshire then went on a deceptively promising run of four consecutive victories – though two of these were not County games.
Surrey were beaten by 28 runs, thanks mainly to exactly 100 by Reg Simpson; Roy Swetman, who was to play for Notts later in his career, was in the Surrey side that day.
Norman Hill’s 162 was the mainstay of a 5 wicket win over Oxford University and a Combined Services XI were defeated by 40 runs, even though Notts conceded a 69-run deficit on first innings. Ian Davison, with eight wickets in the match, was the principal contributor.
Nine wickets from ‘Bomber’ Wells ensured Notts beat Somerset at Yeovil by 69 runs. However, at Newport, they went backwards and versus Glamorganshire suffered a 155-run defeat, being dismissed for 86 and 176.
This was the first of seven successive losses. Still on their travels, Notts lost to Sussex at Hove by 60 runs; with most of the second day lost to rain, both sides made sporting declarations but the home side emerged with the winner’s points.
In the Notts first innings, Carlton Forbes (58no) and Cyril Poole (95) put on 145 out of just 158-6 declared!
Back home, but at Worksop, Notts lost to Somerset by an innings and 57 runs – Brian Roe and Bill Alley each made tons for the visitors – despite ‘Bomber’ Wells making what was then a career-best 44, batting at number 11.
In a low-scoring game at Trent Bridge, a century from Gilbert Parkhouse was the difference as Glamorganshire won by six wickets. Essex won at Westcliff-on-Sea by 120 runs and a century in each innings for Peter Parfitt ensured Middlesex won at Trent Bridge by 28 runs.
Peter Jones of Kent made his highest First-Class score of 132, this after the encouragement of AJ Corran dismissing Colin Cowrey for a duck, to set up a two-wicket win. Cowdrey, incidentally, made amends scoring 135 in the second innings. Norman Hill’s 163 was not enough to save the game.
The dismal sequence was broken when Northamptonshire visited Trent Bridge, a century from Mervyn Winfield setting up a win by 127 runs.
Notts then made their first visit to the Steetley Company ground in Shireoaks but did not find much fortune there – losing to Sussex by nine wickets. Norman Hill made 201 (the best of the season for Notts and his career high) but Alan Oakman responded with 229, remarkably this was also his career best score.
Hill was in form again at Rushden, making 141 as Notts drew against Northamptonshire for whom Jim Watts made 125. Hampshire, who won their first Championship in 1961, beat Notts by 15 runs, Butch White taking nine wickets in the match.
The touring Australian came to Trent Bridge and after losing most of the first day to the weather, drew a match that they were in command of throughout. Neil Harvey made a typically elegant 140 as the Aussies clocked up 364-8 dec; Notts replied with just 125 (Mackay and Kline sharing the wickets) and – following-on – 222-7.
Back in the Championship and back on the road, Notts lost to Lancashire at Southport; Geoff Pullar made the only significant innings, 115, as Lancs won by five wickets.
Gloucestershire came to Nottingham and, thanks in part to a century by David Allen, won by six wickets. Notts then returned to Worksop for the match against Lancashire referred to earlier.
The home team piled on the runs, for once, with Geoff Millman (129) and Maurice Hill (137) to lead Notts to 431-4 dec. Lancashire made a lowly 154, AJ Corran 5-81, but could not be asked to follow-on; John Clay declared the Notts second innings closed at 94-0 and watched as the Red Rose county made 372-4, Bob Barber 104, to win by six wickets.
Notts drew with Derbyshire at Ilkeston, during which match John Clay passed 1,000 runs for the season. The next game, away to Warwickshire, was also drawn; the two (unrelated) Hills in the Notts team each made tons – Norman 101 and Maurice 105no – but a responding 117 from MJK Smith saw the home side to a draw.
Surrey, still with the core of the side that had dominated the previous decade, had a poor season to finish two places off the bottom of the table. But their strength was shown in the game against Notts at The Oval with Ken Barrington making 163 as they won by 134 runs.
Yorkshire came to Trent Bridge and won by 207 runs. Bryan Stott and Doug Padgett each made centuries for the visitors in their first innings and Brian Bolus, who would join Notts in 1963, made a ton in the second innings to guarantee a comfortable victory.
Nottinghamshire won their fourth Championship game of the season at home to Warwickshire, in a game of similar scores. Notts batted first and recorded 116 all out and Warwks replied with 119-5 dec; second time around Notts improved to 266 all out and, despite a second ton of the summer against them by MJK Smith, bowled the visitors out for 226 to win by 37 runs.
The season ended with a trio of defeats. Leicestershire won by five wickets at Leicester, Maurice Hallam making 130 to more than outweigh Maurice Hill’s 100no. Worcestershire came to Trent Bridge and with George Dews and Martin Horton each making hundreds, won by eight wickets. John Clay made 106 for Notts, his only century of the season.
The last match fittingly saw the new champions come to Trent Bridge. Hampshire duly proved their worth with a 128-run victory.
John Clay played his last match for Nottinghamshire – he was succeeded as captain by AJ Corran – and finished with just shy of 10,000 runs and 11 centuries.
The rather bullish comments of the Committee about the team’s qualities are borne out by a look at the batting averages. Seven batters passed 1,000 runs for the season with Norman Hill’s 2,185 with six centuries the outstanding performance. There were fourteen hundreds scored, with seven players making at least one ‘ton’.
Bryan ‘Bomber’ Wells lead the bowling figures, finishing with 96 wickets, just missing the 100 mark; John Cotton was unable to bowl in the latter part of the season and was missed.
In a year when the famous old Pavilion is undergoing its biggest ever re-fit, it is pertinent to look at one comment in the 1961 report (a year when Trent Bridge did not host a Test Match):
‘The cost of maintaining Trent Bridge as a Test Match Ground is a heavy drain on the Club’s limited resources and if it is to be retained on the rota of Test Match venues, then it is absolutely necessary that numerous improvements be made from time to time to the existing facilities, in order to keep it in line with the other Test Match venues.’
March 2026
Scorecards and stats can be seen here