Joseph Guy — Nottinghamshire's Veteran Batsman in His Final Years, 1853

Joseph Guy was born at Nottingham in October 1814 and made his first-class debut for Nottinghamshire in 1828. He was a right-handed batsman of classical technique — the Nottingham forward style that had been the city's batting tradition since the days of Richard Daft's predecessors. He scored 5,213 first-class runs at 16.93 across 235 matches, with a highest score of 103 not out; his consistency on difficult pitches was exceptional. A regular in the All-England Eleven under Clarke through the late 1840s, he had declined by the early 1850s but continued to play county cricket until 1857, by which time Richard Daft and George Parr had fully replaced him in the Nottinghamshire batting order. He died at Nottingham in June 1873. Fuller Pilch, when asked to name the best forward player he had seen, frequently cited Guy alongside himself.