John Gunn

Who was John Gunn?

John Richmond Gunn was an English cricketer who played in six Tests from 1901 to 1905.

A nephew of the then-famous batsman William Gunn, John Gunn first played for Nottinghamshire when only twenty. The following year John Gunn scored 107 against the Philadelphians in his third first-class match and took ten wickets against Yorkshire in his fourth. With William Attewell desperately needing support to improve Nottinghamshire's deplorably weak bowling, Gunn was seen as a boon but he but did so little after the Yorkshire game that he could not establish a place in the team. 1898, strangely, was a repeat of the previous year with one bowling performance against Yorkshire overshadowing everything else.

1899, with the decline of Attewell, saw John Gunn establish himself as Nottinghamshire's chief bowler, though he faded late in the season. 1900, however, saw him and Thomas Wass restore Nottinghamshire's bowling to reasonable strength for the first time since the early 1890s. He took eleven wickets for the Players against the Gentlemen at the Oval.