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.

In those days Gunn was a left hand medium pace bowler who relied on the ball that went in from off to leg, which allowed him to nag away at batsmen very well on good pitches but could not break-back on a sticky wicket like Rhodes, Blythe, Briggs or Hargreave.

It was because of this that Gunn was chosen for the Ashes tour of 1901/1902 when Yorkshire refused to let Rhodes go – apparently because they feared it would affect his performance the following season.

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.

He did play for Sir Julien Cahn's XI after this time, scoring 139 in one match against Essex in 1930,[1] and featuring for the team until at least the age of fifty-six.