Derbyshire’s Specsavers County Championship match against Kent at Canterbury, starting on Friday 21 April, will be the 138th meeting between the two sides in all first-class cricket.
Heritage Officer, David Griffin, looks at the statistical background to the game.
Despite Canterbury being Kent’s headquarters ground, Derbyshire has previously only played there in 20 first-class matches; otherwise venturing around the south-east county, playing at Catford, Chatham, Dartford, Dover, Folkestone, Gillingham, Gravesend, Maidstone, Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells.
Of the previous 137 fixtures, Derbyshire have won 40, Kent 55, and 42 ended in a draw. Derbyshire last won away at Canterbury in 2015 when a superb spell of fast bowling by Wayne White secured an unlikely victory before lunch on the third day, while the game there in 2016 ended in a high-scoring draw.
The St Lawrence Ground has been a happy hunting ground for several Derbyshire players over the years; Donald Carr scored hundreds in each innings in 1959 – one of only 17 instances for Derbyshire.
Wayne Madsen and Shiv Thakor both recorded hundreds in the away game in 2016, and Madsen also scored one there in 2011. The game in 2016 saw Derbyshire total 574-9 declared – their highest ever team score against Kent, and the 8th highest in the Club’s history.
Kevin Dean produced the best bowling analysis by a Derbyshire bowler this century (8-52) at Canterbury in 2000, while Tony Palladino is the only member of the current playing staff to have taken five wickets in an innings there, 5-62 in 2014.
In the same match as Dean’s 8-52, openers Steve Stubbings and Steve Titchard batted throughout the final day, adding an unbroken 293 for the first wicket with both scoring hundreds, while in the process all eleven Kent players tried in vain to take a wicket.
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