Clough joined Nottinghamshire from Yorkshire on a summer contract for the 2000 season. Producing some excellent all-round cricket for the Second Eleven – batting average of 26.66, bowling of 19.05 – he enabled the side to finish 4th in the Championship table.
The following season Notts Seconds rose to third place and Clough remained the principal all-rounder. At the same time he appeared in four Notts First-Class matches and no fewer than 20 limited overs games. The future seemed most promising, but though he played another seven years at Trent Bridge, his First-Class career was virtually over!
He would be chosen for only seven more First-Class matches over those summers. On the other hand, he was an almost permanent fixture in the One-Day squad. His agility in the field and ability to bowl tidy spells made him an ideal component of the team in limited-overs cricket. His averages reflect that - in First-Class cricket his wickets cost 47.87, in List-A the average dropped to 32.73 and lowered again in T20 games where his 31 wickets came at 25.41. Clough played in 135 One Dayers for Notts, taking 117 wickets and hitting 910 runs.
In June 2007, Gareth Clough was largely responsible for that rarity, a maiden T20 over; rarer still, it was the first of Derbyshire's iinings - and yet Clugh gets no credit for that unusual achievement. The over was started by Charlie Shreck, who took a fierce blow on the shin from the first ball and had to retire from the game. Clough completed the over and the opening batters, perhaps upset by Shreck's injury, took no runs from the remaining five balls. So a maiden T20 over is not credited to either bowler!
Gareth Clough left Trent Bridge at the end of the 2007 season and continued in Minor Counties cricket for Lincolnshire for two more years, then retired, in part due to injury, to become a teacher.
November 2023
Nottinghamshire First-Class Number: 558