Career
As a football player, he played inside-forward for Birmingham, Coventry City, Newport County, and Rugby Town. In his cricket career, he was a right-hand opening batsman who played for Warwickshire. Gardner was playing for Birmingham when World World War II came to Europe.
He guested for Portuguese Vale in 1946.
He signed with Coventry City after the war, and scored three goals in 13 league games for the "Bantams" as the Second Division club posted mid-table finishes in 1946-1947, 1947-1948, and 1948-1949 under the stewardship of Billy Frith and Harry Storer. He scored two goals in four Third Division South games for Tom Bromilow"s Newport County in the 1949-1950 season.
After leaving Rodney Parade, he played for Rugby Town and later became the trainer-coach of Lockheed Leamington. He played 338 first-class matches for his home county between 1947 and 1961, he also made one appearance for an England XI against the touring South Africans in 1955 and played once for the Players against the Gentlemen in 1957.
Gardner scored a total of 17,905 first-class runs at an average of 33.71, passing 1,000 runs in a season for ten consecutive years between 1949 and 1958.
His best seasonal total came in 1950 when he scored 1,911 runs at 45.50, included in this was his highest score of his career, an innings of 215 not out against Somerset at Taunton. Also in that season, he scored centuries in both innings during the fixture with Essex at Ilford. Gardner made his first-class debut in 1947 at the age of 25, becoming a regular in 1949 when he was awarded his county cap.
In 1953 Gardner scored 110 against the touring Australians becoming the first Warwickshire batsman to score a hundred against an Australian side.
He was awarded a benefit season in 1958, the last season in which he appeared regularly. After finishing his playing career in 1961, he joined the umpires list standing in 98 first-class matches between 1962 and 1965.
Following this he dedicated time to coaching juniors in the Coventry area. Gardner died at the age of 56, in his native Coventry, following a long illness.