[1] Having made his way up through the Oxfordshire youth cricket system, he was chosen by then Berkshire captain Bjorn Mordt to play for Berkshire in 2012,[1] debuting in the MCCA Knockout Trophy against Wales Minor Counties,[2] and during the same season in the Minor Counties Championship against Oxfordshire.
[5] The match was abandoned after 18 overs, with Nugent taking the wicket of Bhanuka Rajapaksa in the Sri Lankan A innings.
[6] Having matriculated to Loughborough University to study chemical engineering,[1] he made a single appearance in first-class cricket for Loughborough MCCU against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge in 2015,[7] with Nugent taking the wickets of internationals Alex Hales, James Taylor, and Brendan Taylor with his right-arm fast-medium bowling.
[9] During his thirteen seasons with Berkshire, he won seventeen minor counties titles across all three formats of the game, and in the twelve outright finals in which he played he was never on the losing side.
In the Minor Counties Championship, he took 175 wickets at an average of 19.23, with Berkshire coach Tom Lambert proffering that Nugent was the most outstanding red-ball bowler of recent times in minor counties cricket.