KEN’S MAY ‘FIRSTS’…
May marks the start of summer for many people – not least the cricketers – and for Ken Smales, who moved from his native Yorkshire to join Nottinghamshire for the 1951 season, in particular.
It was 75 years ago – on 5 May 1951 – that Ken made his Nottinghamshire debut, against Kent at Gillingham.
May proved to be a significant month for Smales; he made his Yorkshire debut in May 1948 and his highest score as a batter – 64 against Glamorgan at Trent Bridge – on 13 May 1958, in his last season as a First-Class cricketer.
When Smales made the short journey South, he was signed to strengthen the Nottinghamshire bowling attack. If he didn’t quite match the achievements of fellow signing Bruce Dooland, he played an important part for Notts over the next seven seasons.
His debut was not marked by success – Notts drew with Kent and Smales did not take a wicket in the only innings that home side managed.
Similarly, his 64 – the top score in the match – could not prevent Glamorgan winnings by five wickets.
Given that he took 389 First-Class wickets, 367 of those for Nottinghamshire, with twenty five-wicket hauls and five times took ten or more in a match, he is perhaps unfortunate that his personal milestones did not coincide with team victories.
Most poignantly, his greatest single achievement – one unequalled by any Notts player – came in a defeat to Gloucestershire in the first First-Class game to be played at the Erinoid Ground, Stroud.
Ken Smales took all ten Gloucestershire first innings wickets to finish with 10-66!
This was in June 1956 – thus the 70th Anniversary approaches – when Notts failed to support his efforts and lost by nine wickets.
Smales had three clean bowled (Emmett, Rochford and McHugh); two caught-and-bowled (Nicholls and Cook); two LBW (Smith and Wells); and three caught (Knightley-Smith, Crapp and Mortimore). Only Arthur Milton, 70no, resisted Smales that day; his final figures were 41.3-20-66-10.
The other Notts bowlers, Arthur Jepson, Alan Walker and Bruce Dooland, bowled 62 overs and conceded 137 runs whilst Ken Smales’s off-breaks did their record-breaking best.
Ken’s only hat-trick – against Lancashire at Trent Bridge in 1955 – did contribute to a win, by the slender margin of 32 runs. Smales took the last three Lancs second innings wickets – Hilton, Moore and Smith – the first of which was his 50th Championship wicket of the season.
Hia most successful season with the ball was not 1956 but the season before when he took 117 First-Class wickets at 24.12 with eight ‘five-fers’ and three ten wicket hauls.
When he finished his cricket career in 1958 he certainly wasn’t done with Nottingham sport. He moved across the Radcliffe Road to join Nottingham Forest, firstly as assistant secretary and then, in 1961, became full-time Secretary.
He stayed with Forest for more than thirty years, through the great Brian Clough years and signed off on the first £1million pound transfer in English football when Forest recruited Trevor Francis from Burmingham City.
Ken was the author of the most detailed book on the history of Nottingham Forest FC: 'Forest - The First 125 Years'.
He was a very keen supporter of rugby league and in 1989 was appointed a Director of Nottingham City Rugby League Club, based at the Harvey Hadden Stadium, until their demise in 1993. In retirement Ken moved to Cornwall, where he died on 10 March 2015 at the age of 87.
May 2026