Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club has a long and illustrious history going back to the 1830s. We look back over the years and discover three cricketers with links to the Mapperley area. There will certainly be more, so let us know about them.
Mike Smedley
We recently posted an article about ‘Smedleys’ newsagent shop on Mapperley Top in the 1980s. The owner was former cricketer Mike Smedley who played for Nottinghamshire in the 1960s and 70s.
Yorkshireman Smedley joined the Notts playing staff in 1963 along with two others who were struggling for a place in the Yorkshire side, Brian Bolus and Keith Gillhouley. Smedley was 21 and the same as a certain Geoff Boycott who was chosen in favour of the others.
He played successfully for Notts Second XI in his initial summer and made his First-Class debut for Notts in 1964.
More on Mike Smedley’s career can be found here:
https://www.trentbridge.co.uk/trentbridge/history/players/mike-smedley.html
Paul Pollard
We also know about a more recent local man who ten seasons at Notts CCC from the mid 1980s. Paul Pollard grew up and lived locally, attending Gedling Comprehensive School.
Pollard was a stylish left-handed opening bat who played his first Second XI cricket for Nottinghamshire versus Derbyshire in 1985, in which he scored 9 and 0. He soon earned his place in the Notts first team.
Paul is currently a cricket umpire.
More can be found here:
https://www.trentbridge.co.uk/trentbridge/history/players/paul-pollard.html
Arthur Shrewsbury
Another cricketer with a more sobering connection to the area was Arthur Shrewsbury. Shrewsbury died in tragic circumstances and is buried in the churchyard of Gedling All Hallows.
Born in New Lenton, Nottingham in 1856, hed was educated at the People’s College, Nottingham. His first recorded cricket appearance was playing for the College against High Pavement School, when he was 11 years of age.
He formed a formidable cricket and business career with Alfred Shaw. They not only ran a successful sports outfitters on Carrington Street but also organised cricket and rugby tours to Australia.
It is now generally accepted that the rugby football tour they organised in 1888, was the first tour by a British Lions party.
Tragic End
Shrewsbury captained his country in seven Tests and was the last professional to be England captain until Len Hutton was chosen in 1952. He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1890. It was hoped he would appear for Nottinghamshire in 1903 but on 19 May of that year, tragedy struck.
He moved into the house of his sister Amelia Love, who owned The Limes on Station Road in Gedling.
On May 12th, 1903, Shrewsbury ventured into Nottingham and purchased a revolver. A week later, whilst in the bedroom of his sister’s house, he shot himself in the chest and then the head, dying instantly.
It was a tragic end for one of England’s finest batsmen.
At the inquest, the coroner decided that Shrewsbury had taken his own life due to his mind being ‘quite unhinged’ by the belief that he had an incurable disease.
Arthur Shrewsbury was buried on May 21 in the churchyard of All Hallows, Gedling, where he remains to this day.
More on Arthur Shrewsbury can be found here.
https://www.trentbridge.co.uk/trentbridge/history/players/arthur-shrewsbury.html
Shrewsbury’s grave at Gedling All Hallows Church.
Picture dated May 2025 and Credit Trent Bridge