1 Overlapping cricket and football seasons is not just a modern phenomenon. From the 1860s until 1910 Trent Bridge was the shared home of Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club and Notts County Football Club. When wrangles over who had priority became too contentious, the football club moved to Meadow Lane, a mere goal kick away. During this era Trent Bridge even hosted an international match: England beat Ireland 6-0 in February 1897.
2 Football isn’t the only other sport to have been played at Trent Bridge. Lacrosse, golf, hockey and baseball have all taken place on the turf and clay pigeon shooting in the air above it.
3 The main cricket ground in Nottingham during the 18th century was inside the town’s oval racecourse, about one mile north of the centre. The cricketers couldn’t charge for admission because the ground was on public land owned by the town council.
4 With an eye on the potential income from spectators, William Clarke developed an enclosed ground in 1838. He converted a field behind the Trent Bridge Inn, where the landlady just happened to be his wife. Clarke remained the guv’nor until his death in 1856; his name lives on in the William Clarke Stand, which opened in 1990.
5 Among the various Test match records set at Trent Bridge, the most unexpected came from Aussie Ashton Agar against England in 2013. Little known on his debut, he scored 98 runs from 101 balls batting at number 11. Agar’s knock is the highest score by a number 11 batsman and was part of a then-record partnership of 163 runs for the last wicket.
6 Trent Bridge remained in use for cricket throughout both world wars. During the first world war the pavilion became a military hospital, while in the second world war the army took it over from 1939-45 and used it as a mail sorting office. The press box did service as a makeshift dressing room. The ground avoided any serious bomb damage – the only direct hit was on a building next to the indoor nets used by the local Boys’ Brigade.
7 In 1859 John Johnson, a local solicitor, came up with a novel scheme to unearth local talent. For more than 40 years Johnson organised a game each Easter between the county team and 22 aspiring hopefuls. The match proved a huge success and helped Nottinghamshire become county champions no fewer than 14 times from the mid-1860s to 1890.
8 Spin bowler Bernard Bosanquet took eight wickets for 107 for England against Australia at Trent Bridge in 1905. An impressive haul – not least because Bosanquet was deploying the then-controversial googly, a ball that appears to be a leg-break but after pitching turns in the opposite direction and behaves as an off-break. Some players protested that Bosanquet’s new delivery was illegal; he apparently replied: “Oh no, only immoral.” Bosanquet’s other claim to fame was as father of 1970s TV newsreader Reggie, he of the trademark slurred delivery.
9 1st Baronet Cahn of Stanford on Soar was responsible for much of Trent Bridge’s development during the 1930s. Not only did the cricket-loving businessman and philanthropist rebuild many of the stands, he also constructed his own ground at Stanford Hall; sponsored cricket clubs and players who were short of money; and ran his own globetrotting team, the Sir Julien Cahn XI.
10 In 1989, the Trent Bridge pitch for a county match between Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire was officially deemed unfit. What to do? The umpires decided that play must continue – but on an adjacent pitch that had already been used earlier that week. All the players agreed except West Indian legend Michael Holding, who thought the idea ridiculous. He sat out the rest of the game and is recorded on the scorecard as “absent”.
11 Nottinghamshire were county champions in 1907 but the most entertaining game played at Trent Bridge that season didn’t involve any of the professionals. Notts Crimea & Indian Mutiny Veterans took on Nottinghamshire Ladies – the latter bolstered by a certain councillor Swain, who had organised the match in aid of the city’s poor. The Ladies (and token man) won.
