He was named a Cricketer of the Year by Wisden for 1904, but the following three years were not quite up to the standard set in 1903 – though he bowled wonderfully against Essex in 1905 on a perfect pitch. In 1906 Gunn again changed his style, bowling very slowly and tossing the ball up, with barely improved success. 1907 was a year of quite incredible triumph for Nottinghamshire, but for John Gunn it was an anticlimax. Wass and Hallam accomplished the most amazing run of bowling triumphs in the history of the competition, and Gunn bowled only 281 overs in 17 matches. Only against Essex and the South African touring team did Gunn have to do serious bowling. In batting, too, he was overshadowed by his younger brother George and failed to reach 1,000 runs despite a century against Sussex. Unexpectedly, the lack of practice in 1907 affected his bowling severely when Wass and Hallam failed to repeat their 1907 form in the following two seasons. Indeed, by 1909 John Gunn was clearly no more than an occasional bowler – he had taken only 42 wickets for 30 each in 1908 and 1909 – besides failing to recover his batting form. In the extremely dry summer of 1911, he was back in form as a batsman, but though called upon to bowl a good deal he was never formidable and always expensive. Nonetheless, his batting remained a major force right up to the early 1920s: he averaged over 40 in 1911, 1913, 1914, 1919 and 1920 and was at times the side's outstanding batsman. After this, time gradually took its toll and Gunn dropped out of the Nottinghamshire side after a few matches in 1925. He did play for Sir Julien Cahn's XI after this time, scoring 139 in one match against Essex in 1930, and featuring for the team until at least the age of fifty-six. References External links 1876 births 1963 deaths English cricketers England Test cricketers Nottinghamshire cricketers Wisden Cricketers of the Year People from Hucknall Cricketers from Nottinghamshire North v South cricketers Players cricketers London County cricketers English cricketers of 1919 to 1945 C. I. Thornton's XI cricketers