County Championship - 16th (W3, L10, D4)
Benson & Hedges Cup - Group Stage
Axa League - 10th
Nat West Trophy - Quarter final
Captain - Paul Johnson, Jason Gallian
The report to members summed up the season thus: ‘The summer of 1998 has been a bitterly disappointing one for all concerned, falling well below most people’s expectations and causing a considerable amount of upheaval along the way.
‘What made it so demoralising was that everything seemed to have fallen into place nicely right to the first ball of the season and we had a good reason to believe we could make significant progress.’
The Championship season could hardly have got off to a worse start – bowled out for 118 by Derbyshire with number ten batter Kevin Evans the top scorer with 28. Defeat inevitably followed despite Usman Afzaal making his maiden First-Class hundred (109) in the second innings.
Rain ensured a draw against Somerset at Taunton which meant that Mark Bowen’s career-best 7-73 was achieved in vain. Notts forfeited their first innings and Somerset their second but there was still not sufficient time to complete the match.
The batting continued to struggle at home to Sussex with five ducks in the second innings (122 all out) and the top six contributing just 14 runs between them. The visitors won by four wickets.
Notts got their first win of the season away to Warwickshire with Mark Bowen again starring – seven wickets in the match including snaring Brian Lara for just two in the first innings. Lara did make 80 second time round but could not prevent Notts from easing to a six-wicket win.
Chris Tolley for Notts and Melvyn Betts for Durham each took five wickets in an innings at The Riverside but it was Betts who finished on the winning side – Durham romping home by eight wickets.
Notts had the better of a draw with Essex at Ilford, passing 300 (342 all out) for the first time in the sixth match of the season. When time ran out, Essex were 198-8, a long way short of the 300 they needed.
A visit to Canterbury brought another defeat, by three wickets, even though Kent conceded a first innings lead of 26 to Notts. Lead by West Indies star Carl Hooper (122) Kent chased down 334 for the loss of seven wickets.
There was another contrived finish when Glamorgan came to Trent Bridge. With no play possible on the first day, and very little on day two, Glamorgan declared their first innings on 351-8 well into day three and Notts declared at their overnight score of 31-2. The visitors forfeited their second innings and then bowled out Notts for 274, to win by 46 runs.
Middlesex were the next visitors and for once it was the opposition’s batting that failed. They were bowled out for 198 and 123 (Franks 5-58) and Notts’ first innings 413 was enough to bring a resounding victory by an innings and 92 runs.
Tim Robinson made his only century of the season (he missed several games through injury), 114, as Notts drew with Yorkshire at Scarborough. In the course of that innings, Robinson reached 27,000 First-Class runs – second only to George Gunn among Nottinghamshire batters.
A century (113) from Jason Gallian, in his first season with Notts, was not enough to prevent Hamshire from winning by seven wickets at Portsmouth.
Against Northamptonshire at home, Notts had two centurions in one innings for the only time that season. Skipper Paul Johnson (105) shared a 170 run third wicket stand with Usman Afzaal (103no) in a high-scoring draw; there was no play on the final day.
These two combined again against Worcestershire at Kidderminster, putting on 111 for the third wicket, Afzaal 34; Johnson made successive tons, finishing with 139 as Notts completed an unlikely 90 run win. Having been behind by more than 100 runs on first innings, this was a victory that demonstrated that the pre-season optimism was not entirely misplaced; Paul Franks with 6-63 and Chris Tolley with 7-45 (a career-best) were the outstanding bowlers.
That was as good as it got for Notts and the last four games were all lost despite all being home matches.
Surrey came to Trent Bridge and completed a seven-wicket win in just three days. At Worksop Notts crashed to the heaviest defeat of the season, losing by an innings and 223 runs to Leicestershire. Notts made 61 and 221 in reply to Leicester’s 505-6 declared, built around a massive fifth wicket stand between Phil Simmons (194) and Ben Smith (159).
More sorry batting – 115 and 171 – by Nottinghamshire meant a home defeat to Lancashire by 289 runs. Wasim Akram underlined his all-rounder star status with an innings of 155 and then taking 5-56, eclipsing Paul Franks’ highly commendable 6-99.
The final match saw visitors Gloucestershire triumph by 189 runs, due largely to a career high 220no from opener Tim Hancock and nine wickets in the match for Courtney Walsh.
When the last remaining hope of honours disappeared with exit from the NatWest Trophy at the quarter final stage, Paul Johnson decided that the time had come for him to step down as captain.
Jason Gallian succeeded Johnson; he relished the task of captaincy, although it was never going to be easy for him stepping in at short notice.
The other new face Chris Read made the most of his opportunity when Wayne Noon was injured early in the season and was selected for his second England A tour.
In June, Nottinghamshire played a 50-over game against the South African tourists. Half centuries from Jacques Kallis, Brian McMillan and Sean Pollock gave the visitors a 22-run win.
South Africa were back a month later to face England in a Test Match. Despite 126 from skipper Hansie Cronje, Gus Fraser’s match figures of 10-122 gave England a win by eight wickets.
Most famously, this Test, the fourth in the series, featured one of the great passages of international cricket. In England’s second innings Allan Donald bowled a brutal, unrelenting spell from around the wicket and should have had Atherton given caught behind off the glove when he had made 27. Donald was not best pleased.
When Mark Boucher dropped Nasser Hussain, Donald took his fury out on Atherton in a colossal struggle, but he couldn't break the batter's will; a day later England had squared the series, with ‘Athers’ still there on 98 not out.
This Test also marked the England debut of Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff who would make his own headlines at Trent Bridge in 2005.
In List-A cricket, The Outlaws contested three competitions. In the Axa League (40 overs) Notts finished mid-table in tenth place; the most noteworthy match was a tie against Somerset at Taunton when Notts batted first and made 181 all out off 38 overs; Somerset then made 181-9 from their 38 overs.
The Outlaws won only one match in the Benson and Hedges Cup and went out at the group stage. They reached the quarter finals of the NatWest Trophy (60 overs) to be undone by Lancashire’s Glan Chapple who took 5-57 as Notts made 249-9; solid batting by the Lightning saw them to 255-4 off 55.5 overs, Wasim Akram finishing the match with a six!
At the end of the season the decision was taken to relieve Alan Ormrod of his managerial duties, because he was judged first and foremost on the team’s results.
‘A new wave of optimism swept into Trent Bridge’, said the report to members, ‘when Clive Rice returned as Cricket Manager…but there is no doubt that Nottinghamshire cricket badly-needed much a lift.’
October 2026
Scorecards and stats can be seen here