John shared his career with two clubs. He made his Nomansland debut in 1967 and played until 1972 when Nomansland withdrew from the old Salisbury league through lack of numbers to play friendly cricket. He wanted to play league cricket so he joined Milford (Salisbury) CC and was soon made Captain. Milford embarked on a promotion run up through the Hampshire League ending up in County 2, at that time the third tier of Hampshire cricket. He still maintained his home club links however and took over the secretarial reins while still at Milford. He returned to Nomansland in 1984 and history repeated itself for him as the club started its promotional run, aided by a clutch of very good and keen young players that took the club onwards.
John scored well over ten thousand runs for each club and also around eight hundred wickets between the two. His one disappointment would be his lack of centuries! Although he passed the half-century on 127 occasions, he only went on to notch 5 ‘tons’.
His NCC records include:
- Most runs in a season-1,831 in 1989
- Most fifties in a season- 14 in 1989
- Six hit trophy in 1988 and 1989
- 5th wicket record shared with Kevin Hayward 157 in 1995
- 7th wicket record shared with Gary Loveless 92* in 1991
- Shared in 5 partnerships of 150+
- Clubman on four occasions
- Best performance with Mike Ward in 2001- a match-winning partnership
- His best league bowling figures for Nomansland were 7-53 in 1970
- Scored two centuries for NCC
- Claim to fame- was the first player to score a Salisbury Evening league century- 108 vs Alderbury in 1980, playing for Milford CC