JOHN GUNN – AN ALL-ROUNDER OF THE FINEST CALIBRE
Centenary of His Retirement
One hundred years ago today (4 August 1925) the most successful all-rounder ever to play for Nottinghamshire played his final game for the county.
Given that he must be measured against such luminaries as Billy Barnes, Garry Sobers, Clive Rice, Richard Hadlee, Chris Cairns and Franklyn Stephenson, that’s quite a claim to make on behalf of John Richmond Gunn – but the figures do not lie.
He remains the only cricketer to score more than 20,000 runs and take more than 1,000 wickets for Nottinghamshire.
In all First-Class cricket, he scored 24,601 runs, average 33.19, took 1,243 wickets at 24.50 runs each and held 233 catches.
His 23,194 for his home county put him fourth on the list of Nottinghamshire’s batters (a list topped by his younger brother George) and the 1,128 wickets have him eighth on the bowling roll of honour. No other player appears in the top ten for both batting and bowling for Notts.
Adding to that, he shares the highest fourth wicket partnership for Notts, the 361 made against Essex with AO Jones in 1905, of which Gunn scored 151. Two years earlier, he had set the highest score by a Notts batter of 294 in another huge stand, 369 against Leicestershire, made in partnership with his uncle William (Billy) Gunn.
So for a while he held the record partnership for both the third and fourth wickets stands. The latter remains, 120 years on.
Curiously, his 294 was eclipsed as the highest score by a Nottinghamshire player just a few weeks later when AO Jones, his partner in that 361 stand, made 296 against Gloucestershire. Later, in 1939 against Middlesex at The Oval, Walter Keeton posted Nottinghamshire’s only triple century (to date) making 312no.
It would be some consolation to know that his 294 is still the top score for a number four batter for Notts and that it is, with his fourth wicket partnership, the longest standing of all Notts batting records.
Writing in 1904 about the previous season of cricket, the citation for John Gunn as one of the ‘Cricketers of the Year’ says:
“During the past summer John Gunn as an all round cricketer had no superior in England…He was in great form all through the season, and finished up with a truly splendid record, scoring 1665 runs in First-Class matches, with an average of 42, and taking 118 wickets at a cost of something over nineteen runs apiece…
“…as bowler he did wonderful work at the beginning of August, keeping on unchanged against Surrey at the Oval and Essex at Leyton, and being largely instrumental in gaining two victories for his side. In the two matches he took twenty-eight wickets – fourteen in each game.”
In 1903, having made his First-Class debut in 1896, John Gunn was firmly established as a key player, which he was to remain until his retirement more than twenty years, and a World War, later.
Born in Hucknall Torkard on 19 July 1876, John Gunn, brother of George and nephew of William, moved to Nottingham as a boy and played cricket for the Nottingham Castle CC and Radford & Cutts CC. He appeared in the Nottinghamshire Colts XXII of April 1896 and was distinctly useful with the ball, returning figures of 6-2-4-3.
His debut for Nottinghamshire came v Gloucestershire at Bristol in August 1896, when the County took the field without Shrewsbury, William Gunn and Dixon. This was John Gunn’s only First-Class encounter of 1896.
Appointed as one of the original members of the Nottinghamshire ground staff in 1897, he scored a century in his second First-Class match of that year v Philadelphians at Trent Bridge; his innings of 107, made in four and a half hours with one chance, saved Nottinghamshire from defeat.
He was then principally employed as a bowler, batting at eight or nine in the order. In the match following his first 100, Gunn took 10 wickets in a match for the first time, which feat he was to repeat 15 times for Nottinghamshire.
On entering county cricket, Gunn was a medium-pace left-arm bowler, but in 1903 he reduced his speed, thus achieving a much greater command of length and more success. By 1906 or 1907 he had still further reduced his speed and for the remainder of his career bowled very slowly, tossing the ball well up to the batter and conceding very few runs.
In 1912, 1914, and 1920, John Gunn headed the Nottinghamshire batting averages, having headed the bowling averages in 1901 and 1903. He completed the double in 1903, 1904 and 1906 in Nottinghamshire matches and in 1905 in all First-Class matches.
Recognition above County level came to Gunn in 1900, when he was chosen to represent the Players v Gentlemen at the Oval where he took W G Grace’s wicket in both innings and finished with 11 wickets for 137 runs.
He performed the hat-trick at the expense of Derbyshire at Chesterfield in 1904 and of Middlesex at Lord's in 1899; in 1921 at Nottingham he dismissed three Lancashire batters, all leg before, in four balls. He excelled as a fielder at cover-point, where, clever in anticipation, he had few superiors.
John Gunn played six times for England, all against Australia, but rarely equalled his county form in Tests. He played one home Test, at his home ground of Trent Bridge under the captaincy of FS Jackson in 1905.
He represented the ‘Players’ in the traditional fixture against the ‘Gentlemen’ on thirteen occasions and was a regular for Sir Julien Cahn’s XI in the years after his county career.
John Gunn’s last First-Class match for Nottinghamshire was v Surrey at The Oval in August 1925. On three occasions he played First-Class cricket for Sir Julien Cahn’s team with his final match for Cahn’s XI v South Americans at Loughborough Road, Nottingham in June of that year.
One of the famed ‘Trent Bridge Battery’ of Gunns – brother George, Uncle Billy and George’s son George Vernon – John enjoyed a long career, playing on well after World War I.
John and George Gunn served together in the Nottinghamshire sides before WWI but when war came, although they both served their country, their paths went in different directions.
John was almost 40 when he enlisted in May 1916 and 41 when he was mobilised (started service) a year later. He joined the Royal Garrison Artillery (the same unit as erstwhile team-mate Ted Alletson) but only served in the UK. For most of the time he was at Catterick Camp but he was also at Clipstone Camp.
John William Gunn, John’s eldest son, had volunteered in 1914 at the outbreak of the War but his father and uncle, perhaps because of their ages – or that soon disproved optimism that it would be ‘over by Christmas’ – sat out the first winter of the conflict.
In May 1915, a year ahead of his brother, George enlisted for the Army Service Corps. At that time, participation was still voluntary – though a year later (when John signed on) he would have been eligible for call-up.
On the resumption, they returned to Trent Bridge and played together for many years. Indeed, George played on past his fiftieth birthday, even sharing innings with his son, GV Gunn.
John Gunn died on 21 August 1963 in Nottingham, to be remembered as an all-rounder of the finest calibre.
August 2025