SHIPSTON THE LAST LINK TO 1929
Champion, Coach and ‘Centurion’
Despite playing fewer than fifty First-Class games, Frank Shipston, who died twenty years ago today (6 July) was part of some significant Notts achievements.
The death of Frank Shipston marked the close of a major chapter in the history of Nottinghamshire cricket. He was the last survivor of the 1929 side which won the County Championship under Carr’s captaincy. Ironically. or perhaps fittingly, he died in July 2005, the year in which his home County secured another Championship title.
Frank was born in Bulwell on 31 July 1906; his father was at that time a member of the Notts playing staff but, unlike his son, Frank snr never appeared in a First-Class match for the county.
The Shipston family knew the Whysalls – ‘Dodge’ Whysall was the Notts opening batter from the early 1920s – and Whysall saw promise in young Frank’s cricketing ability. He recommended Frank to the Notts coach.
After a trial, Frank junior was offered and accepted a three-year contract, commencing May 1925. He made plenty of runs for the Second XI that summer and earned a call up to the senior side when Willis Walker missed the final Championship fixture that season.
Thus Frank Shipston made his debut one hundred years ago – against Glamorgan at Swansea (a ground that this year stages it’s final game). He made 10 and 5no and was on the field when the winning runs were hit for a five-wicket victory.
By 1929 he was an established member of the First Team squad and played in four Championship matches, three of which were innings victories for Notts (plus a draw against Surrey).
Shipston’s best season was 1932, during which he played 10 First-Class games, averaged 35.46 and scored both his two First-Class hundreds.
Then first of those was 118no against Hampshire at Trent Bridge in what has become known as the ‘Centurions Match’, when all eleven Notts Players had (once Shipston completed his innings) made a First-Class hundred!
The statistical quirks didn’t end there in that game. That 118no was the top score in the match, equalled by George Brown for the visitors in their second innings (he was dismissed by the Staples brothers) after being asked to follow on – when Hampshire made 118 (again) in their first innings.
That first century earned Shipston elevation to opener for the next few games but his second – and final – ton came when he reverted to batting at six and made 102 in a drawn game against Glamorgan at Cardiff.
In July 1933, Frank Shipston was offered a job by Captain Popkess (whose name lives on with the Popkess Cup in Notts recreational cricket) with the Nottingham City Police. Popkess was trying to create an outstanding Police cricket team; during the final years of the 1930s, the City Police side was one of the dominant teams in the Notts & Derbys Border League; aside from Shipston, it contained four other county players.
He later rejoined Langwith Colliery CC, his club before he joined the Trent Bridge staff, as a semi-pro and later went as a pro to Carr Fastener in Stapleford.
Having had one season on the umpire’s list, Shipston became involved in the coaching of young players at Trent Bridge in 1957 and then succeeded Jim Parks as the official First Team coach for the 1959 season. He retired from that position at the close of the 1965 season.
In his first season as coach, Reg Simpson was club captain and among the debutants in his charge was Carlton Forbes. There was one other ‘debutant’ that season but it’s hard to imagine Frank Shipston giving any coaching advice to Aussie legend Keith Miller!
Miller guested for Notts in a game against Cambridge University, making 62 and 102no and taking two wickets.
Other new players to the First Team squad during his time as coach were ‘Bomber’ Wells, Barry Stead, Barrie Whittingham, Brian Bolus, Mike Taylor and Mike Smedley. He also oversaw the change of skipper in 1961 when John Clay took over from Simpson and became the first professional to captain Notts since Mordecai Sherwin in 1889.
Andy Corran briefly restored the role of amateur captain in 1962 before the distinction between amateur and professional was abolished the following year, after which the captaincy passed to Geoff Millman.
In his retirement Frank Shipston ran a newsagents in Nuttall Road, Nottingham, and for a number of years was an umpire for Notts Amateurs CC.
In his later years Frank Shipston lived at the home of his son, Peter, in Wollaton – Peter had played for Notts in the Minor Counties Championship of 1959 and 1960 – and took a great interest in the current cricket scene.
Frank Shipston died in Wollaton on 6 July 2005 aged 98. Of all Nottinghamshire cricketers, only Willis Walker reached a greater age.
His record in First-Class cricket matches reads: 49 matches, 73 inns, 8no, 1,183 runs, 118no highest score, at an average of 18.48.
But those stats clearly do not tell the full story of a long, busy and landmark-filled association with the Club - Champion, Coach and 'Centurion'.
July 2025