MORDECAI – A KEEPER FOR THE AGES
Mordecai Sherwin was a keeper…a wicket keeper, a goalkeeper and then an inn keeper. He was also a larger-than-life character that has not one but two milestones this year.
Back in February it was the 175 Anniversary of his birth and this month (August) will mark the 150th Anniversary of his First-Class debut for Notts.
Trent Bridge members could perhaps be forgiven for not remembering a character from the middle years of the 19th Century but they will certainly know Mordecai.
For years there hung in the Long Room an imposing portrait of a solid-looking cricketer with, in the words of Notts star Graeme Swann: “…the kind of weird boggle eyes that seem to stare at you wherever you move in the room.”
Save Sherwin's Face
That portrait has, inevitably, suffered over the years; wear and tear and the accumulation of coal dust and tobacco smoke have left their mark on Mordecai. Paint is flaking off the canvas in some areas, and years of dirt and nicotine stains need removing…so much so that the start of this season, the Club launched a ‘Save Sherwin’s Face’ appeal.
Specialist art restorers are working on the portrait, repairing the worst affected parts (including the face that bears those ‘weird’ eyes) and cleaning the rest – in the hopes that he will soon find a new home at Trent Bridge.
Steve LeMottee, Heritage Manager at Trent Bridge, said: “The ‘Save Sherwin’s Face’ appeal is going well. A terrific response from members and supporters means that more than £1,500 has been raised – almost two-thirds of the estimate.
“It would be great to find the remaining £700 before the end of this, his anniversary year”.
To contribute to the Appeal, follow the link https://bit.ly/3RUHxsK.
Wicket Keeper
Mordecai Sherwin was born in Greasley in 1851 but while he was still a young boy the family moved to Cinderhill. Little is known about his early sporting pedigree until July 1876, when Basford Park CC sent a letter to Notts CCC recommending him: ‘…as a wicket-keeper, believing that they would find him superior in that capacity to any local talent they have tried this season…’
Remarkably, the letter got a positive response – hard to imagine anything like that succeeding today – and the 25-year-old Sherwin got his chance.
Within a fortnight, and without appearing in any Notts Colts matches, he was picked for the county following a hand injury to the regular wicketkeeper Fred Wyld. On 14 August 1876, he kept wicket against Gloucestershire (who included WG Grace and his two brothers EM and GF) away at Clifton College.
In 1887, he became the first Notts keeper to take 50 dismissals in a season. Two seasons later he dismissed eight Gloucestershire batsmen (5 ct, 3 st) in a match at Trent Bridge, then a county record.
In a Notts career spanning 20 years and more than 200 First-Class matches, he claimed 500 dismissals (387 catches and 113 stumpings).
Only five keepers have taken more dismissals for the county than Sherwin.
In 331 First-Class matches – Sherwin played for the MCC, and for both the Married XI and the Smokers XI among sides other than Notts – he took 611 catches and 227 stumpings, a total of 838 dismissals.
Sherwin played in 18 matches for the Players against the Gentlemen between 1883 and 1893 and claimed 51 dismissals.
His three Test Matches were all played against Australia; two on the 1886/1887 tour when ‘Alfred Shaw’s XI’ included Mordecai and six other Notts players (Shaw, Arthur Shrewsbury, William Scotton, Billy Barnes, William Gunn and Wilf Flowers). England won both Test matches.
“Sherwin as per usual has been the life and soul of the Team causing a lot of fun by his antics and songs”, noted Shrewsbury in a letter home, whilst the rest of the England team suffered the choppy seas of the Bay of Biscay and were cursing the day they signed to go to Australia.
In 1888 Sherwin played in his only Test Match on home soil, at Lord’s. In Test Matches he took five catches and two stumpings but scored just 30 runs (with a highest of 21no on debut to help England win the First Test in Sydney by 13 runs – England having been bowled out for just 45 in their first innings.)
Mordecai remained Notts regular wicketkeeper until 1893, though his final county appearance was in June 1896, in his own benefit match against Cambridge University. Unfortunately he received nothing from the gate as the match proved of no interest to the public.
He played on until 1898, appearing for the MCC against a Burghley Park XI on 12 August that year, almost 22 years exactly from his First-Class debut.
Sherwin also stood as an umpire in more than 100 matches, the last of which was in 1901 (again in August) when Surrey drew with Middlesex at The Oval.
In 1885 Cricket magazine noted: ‘Possessed of any amount of pluck, Sherwin will stand up to the fastest bowling without flinching and no ball that it is possible to stop by any means will pass him. Considering his bulk, he is remarkably quick, and in catching as well as stumping, is equally smart.’
The magazine also commented that ‘Sherwin’s claim to be considered the best wicketkeeper of the day has hardly been challenged, and both at Lord’s and the Oval he was of great use to the Players in the chief match of the season.’
That reference to ‘his bulk’ was justified. He was always on the solid side – about 5’ 9” tall and heavily built – but by 1891 his weight had increased to over 17st!
Despite that bulk, Sherwin often played to the gallery, turning somersaults in the best Randall vein. He considered himself a showman, sometimes overly so. Wisden remarked, ‘…though the applause and laughter of the spectators may occasionally cause him to go a little too far, he has certainly never done anything to really lay him open to censure.’
This was part of the citation when, in 1891, he was named among the five wicket-keepers chosen as the Wisden Cricketers of the Year. Until WG Grace was chosen five years later, Sherwin was at 40 the oldest player to be thus recognised by Wisden.
So valued was he that in 1887 he was appointed captain of Notts in succession to the great Alfred Shaw but Sherwin was perhaps too amiable for such a position and after two seasons he was replaced by the amateur John A Dixon.
Mordecai was the last professional to captain Nottinghamshire for some seventy years. It was not until 1961 that John Clay took over as club captain to end a run of seven ‘Gentlemen’ (amateur) skippers.
As a (very occasional) bowler he had one famous match in 1892, when the spectators thought he was put on as a joke with Notts needing five Middlesex wickets with half-an hour remaining …but he returned figures of 7-4-9-2 to unexpectedly win the match with his right-arm seamers.
Goalkeeper
If all of that wasn’t enough to make Mordecai and his portrait worthy of preservation, consider that he also had a career as a goalkeeper (and in 19th century football, his bulk may have been an advantage).
Mordecai’s career as a goalkeeper did not take off until 1883 when he made his debut for Notts County (aged 32) at Stoke.
In that season he made 19 appearances and played in all eight FA Cup matches before losing in the semi-final.
When professionalism was legalised in soccer in July 1885, Sherwin was in the first list of professionals. (Folklore has it that he was given the goal-keeper jersey purely due to his success as a wicketkeeper.)
In one match when Blackburn Rovers were playing at Trent Bridge, a sturdy and skilful outside right called Joseph Lofthouse thought he would have a tilt at Sherwin.
He charged him and rebounded off Sherwin, who allegedly said, “Young man, you’ll hurt yourself if you do that again.” Undeterred, Lofthouse attempted it again when Sherwin, belying his size, danced deftly to one side and watched as the young Blackburn forward crashed painfully into the goalpost.
His final games for Notts County were in 1888. On 10 November he played in a 3-3 draw against Accrington (including the aforementioned Joe Lofthouse) in the first season of the Football League and in three FA Cup matches – the final game being away at Staveley on 8 December.
One team photo from his Notts County days shows him alongside three other Nottinghamshire cricketers in County’s colours – Billy Gunn and the brothers Arthur and Harry Corsham.
Inn Keeper
When not occupied on the cricket field or the football pitch, Sherwin dispensed his good humour as mine host at various public houses around Nottinghamshire, including the Craven Arms, Woodborough Road, Nottingham (now demolished) where he died in July 1910. (He was, though, never at The Sherwin Arms in Bramcote and we cannot trace any connection with Mordecai and his family).
He is buried in Nottingham Church Rock Cemetery alongside his wife Emma, daughter Ellen and youngest son John Henry.
He had (at least) seven children: Mary, William, Emma, Ellen, Mordecai, Frederick and John Henry.
His eldest son William became the first bat maker at Gunn & Moore (which was founded 1885) after a recommendation from his father. His youngest son, John Henry was also a bat maker.
His grandson William H Sherwin (died 1952) was a one time a member of Notts CCC committee and a director of Gunn & Moore.
In November 1887 he stood as a Conservative candidate in the Nottingham Municipal Election in Bridge Ward but was not successful.
Man of Mystery?
One thing he didn’t do was become a detective…but he might just have links to the most famous of them all.
There is a persistent story that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – who played First-Class cricket and even captured the wicket of the great WG – might have named his great detective Sherlock Holmes after two Notts cricketers Mordecai Sherwin and the bowler Frank Shacklock.
In the books Sherlock’s elder brother is called Mycroft – the name of a Derbyshire cricketer of the same era – which adds a little weight to the tale.
Some years back the Heritage team at Trent Bridge tried to verify (or quash) the story but the response, from Holmes experts, was that whilst this story is unlikely they couldn’t actually say it was categorically wrong. The mystery remains…
Mordecai Sherwin – a man who looms large (very!) in Notts history.
As Steve LeMottee put it – “We know he was a keeper, let’s ensure that we keep him for future generations to see and to learn his story”.
August 2026