The first half of the decade of the 1840s saw an average of 25 ‘first-class’ matches played each summer of which ten were staged at Lord’s. Through William Clarke’s endeavours Nottinghamshire were considered one of the great cricketing counties of England, but as only Sussex and Kent were worthy opponents, how could Clarke make money from his creation – Trent Bridge Cricket Ground?

There were never going to be more than three or four ‘crowd-drawing’ matches in a season. His first move was the creation of Notts Amateurs C.C. using the Trent Bridge Ground as their home – the Amateur Club employed a professional as a general factotum who bowled to members when practicing and looked after the ground, as well as acting as umpire.

In 1840 a Gentlemen v Players match was instituted, where the best cricketers in the County divided into the two paid and unpaid groupings – the Gentlemen were assisted by one or two professional bowlers and this contest was played at Trent Bridge twice each summer.

In 1842 a second similar match was inaugurated County v Town, again normally twice a season. In the same year the Nottingham v Sheffield match was revived, but the Nottingham side was effectively Nottingham 2nd XI and the attendances were described as ‘poor’.

In theory there was a Notts County Cricket Club, formed in 1841, to help Clarke, but its sole purpose was to raise finance for the very occasional away inter-county match and help with arrangements when Kent or Sussex came to Nottingham. In 1843 Clarke managed to arrange home and away fixtures with Hampshire, but that county was terribly feeble and hardly an attraction for the Nottingham public – the fixture was not tried again.

Five matches were played by Notts in 1843 – four wins and one loss. No matches in 1844. Three matches in 1845 – two wins and a loss. The defeat in 1843 was v MCC at Lord’s and the 1845 v Kent at Canterbury. Sixteen players made their Notts debuts in these games; there were eight amateurs and eight professionals.