Nottingham Cricket Club Nottingham Cricket Club is known to have played important matches from 1771 onwards. Its main opponents were other town teams, especially
Sheffield. The town club called itself Nottinghamshire when playing its first inter-county match versus
Sussex at
Brown's Ground in
Brighton on 27, 28 & 29 August 1835.
Foundation of county club The formal creation of Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club was enacted in March or April 1841 (the exact date has been lost).
William Clarke established Trent Bridge as a cricket venue adjacent to the public house he ran. It was Clarke's successor as Nottinghamshire captain,
George Parr, who first captained a united England touring team in 1859. The club elected its first president,
Sir Henry Bromley, in 1869.
Professionals Early professional greats such as
Alfred Shaw and
Arthur Shrewsbury ensured that Notts were a force in the period before 1900. Thanks largely to the outstanding bowling combination of
Tom Wass and
Albert Hallam, the county won the
County Championship in 1907 when
George Gunn,
John Gunn and
Wilfred Payton were also prominent. Between the wars Notts enjoyed the services of the famous bowlers
Harold Larwood and
Bill Voce. Strong batting from
George Gunn,
Arthur Carr and
Dodger Whysall saw them emerge as champions in 1929 after losing the title on the final day of the season in 1927. Prior to the second war, opening batsman
Walter Keeton gained Test recognition, though the bowling was less effective. Through the early fifties the team was weak. The signing of the Australian leg break bowler
Bruce Dooland, arrested the decline but until the signing of the incomparable
Garfield Sobers in 1968, the team was weak. Sobers hit
Malcolm Nash of
Glamorgan for six sixes in an over in a County Championship game at
Swansea in his first season.
Mike Harris scored heavily in the 1970s, including nine centuries in 1971 but apart from
Barry Stead, the bowling lacked penetration.
1970s and 1980s Nottinghamshire enjoyed one of their strongest teams in the late seventies and early eighties when the
New Zealand all-rounder Richard Hadlee,
South African captain
Clive Rice and England batsman
Derek Randall led the team to the County Championship in 1981. The club's most successful season came in 1987, as Rice and Hadlee marked their departure with the double of County Championship and
NatWest Trophy.
Chris Broad and
Tim Robinson continued the club's long tradition of batting excellence into the England team but for some years the club struggled to repeat those achievements, although they did claim a
Benson & Hedges Cup in 1989 and a
Sunday League title in 1991 under Robinson's captaincy. Former Warwickshire off spinner
Eddie Hemmings made a significant contribution while local seam bowler
Kevin Cooper was a consistent wicket taker.
21st century The following decade was one of underachievement, but in 2004, Nottinghamshire enjoyed a highly successful season, gaining promotion to both the Frizzell County Championship Division One, after winning Division Two, and also Totesport Division One. In 2005, Nottinghamshire won their first County Championship title since 1987, New Zealand's
Stephen Fleming captaining the team to victory. However, the success was not sustained in 2006 and Notts were relegated by a margin of just half a point. They had more success in the shorter formats and ended up runners-up on their debut appearance at
Twenty20 Cup finals day. In 2007, Notts won promotion back to the top flight of the County Championship, finishing second in Division Two. In 2008, the first season of
Chris Read's captaincy, they came close to winning both the County Championship and NatWest Pro40 outright, losing to Hampshire on the final day and Sussex on the final ball respectively. In 2010, Nottinghamshire made it to Finals Day of the
Friends Provident Twenty20 Cup. Drawn against
Somerset, Notts lost on the
Duckworth Lewis method. However, they won the County Championship on the last day, having lost the preceding two matches, with Somerset in second place tied on points but with one less win. 2013 brought a second major trophy of the Read era with victory in the
YB40 one-day competition. While further titles eluded them, Notts remained a fixture in the First Division of the Championship for the next decade under Read's long-running captaincy, also featuring a number of England players including
Stuart Broad,
Graeme Swann,
Alex Hales,
James Taylor and
Samit Patel. In 2017, trophy success returned to Notts. Under the captaincy of Australian
Dan Christian, they won their first
T20 Blast trophy beating Birmingham Bears in the final, whilst in the same season securing the
Royal London One-Day Cup with victory over Surrey. Read, by now only captaining the first-class team, retired in 2017 and was replaced as club captain by
Steven Mullaney, with Christian continuing to lead the T20 team. Despite struggles in the longer game, Notts won a second T20 Blast title in 2020, beating Surrey in a rain-affected final. Notts were relegated from Division One of the County Championship in 2019. They returned to the top tier as Division Two champions in 2022.
Haseeb Hameed took over as the club captain in 2024. In 2025, Notts overhauled three-time defending champions Surrey in the closing weeks of the season to win their seventh County Championship title and first in 15 years. ==Players==