Wisden Obituary
Nye, John Kent, MBE, died in Chichester on January 28, 2002, aged 87. Eight years growing up in Australia gave Jack Nye some idea of what fast bowling was all about. His short-pitched deliveries rattled the young gentlemen of Cambridge when, just turned 20, he took five for 45 and three for 77 against them at Hove on his Sussex debut in 1934. But with Maurice Tate, Jim Cornford, George Pearce and Jim Hammond ahead of him in the pecking order, if not in pace, he had to wait his turn. Arthur Gilligan rated him and Nye repaid his confidence by learning to bowl a more English length and taking 47 wickets in the back half of 1938. Next summer he captured 110 at 30.60 - and doubtless took as much pleasure, given his career batting average of 8.59, from a hard-hit 55 against Worcestershire at Eastbourne, the match in which he reached 100 wickets. The war robbed Nye of his best years and he played only two summers after being demobbed from the RAF, taking 41 and 46 wickets to boost his first-class tally to 304 at 34.23 from 99 games. In his 98th, a career-best six for 95 at Hove scotched Gloucestershire's chances of winning the 1947 Championship. Later that year he went to work in Africa and, after qualifying as an engineer, had a significant hand in Kenya's road-building programme.
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack