Derbyshire’s third of three consecutive away fixtures in the Specsavers County Championship sees them travel to Wales to play Glamorgan at Swansea.
Heritage Officer and Statistician, David Griffin, looks at the statistical background to the game.
Thankfully, the days of back-to-back cricket matches appear to have been largely consigned to history; one recalls the days of John Player League matches being sandwiched between days one and two of a three-day championship game which in 1972 saw Derbyshire play Lancashire at Blackpool on a Saturday, Somerset at Taunton on the Sunday, and back at Blackpool on the Monday. Or in 1991, a finish to a three-day game just after 6pm against Yorkshire at Scarborough on a Thursday evening followed by the start of a new three-day game the following morning at Kidderminster.
And it’s just as well that there is a reasonable gap between the last game at Chester-le-Street and the forthcoming game at Swansea – a 342-mile journey would tax the patience of and stamina of most cricketers and supporters.
Derbyshire visit Swansea for the second year in a row and their 21st visit in total in first-class cricket. This the fourth time that the county has visited Swansea in successive seasons, the most recent being in 1983/84.
Derbyshire’s record at Swansea is good, with seven wins, five defeats and eight draws, whilst overall against Glamorgan they have 48 wins, 31 defeats, 53 draws and one abandonment in their previous 133 games. Derbyshire’s most recent win was at Derby towards the end of the 2018 season, while Glamorgan’s most recent triumph came as they recorded their highest-ever successful run chase to win at Derby earlier this summer.
Derbyshire’s last victory at Swansea came in 1983 – a match in which – unusually – Bob Taylor opened the batting in Derbyshire’s first innings, with Glamorgan’s most recent win there coming in 2003.
The sides’ first meeting in first class cricket was at Cardiff in June 1921 when Bill Bestwick – then aged 46 – took 10-40 – the best bowling analysis in Derbyshire’s history, before lunch.
Bestwick was one of Derbyshire’s greatest fast bowlers with a turbulent lifestyle, but his place in the long lineage of Derbyshire’s fine opening bowlers is assured. He took 1.452 wickets for Derbyshire at an average of 21.27, taking 10 wickets in a match on 27 occasions and 5 wickets in an innings 104 times.
Derbyshire won that opening game by two wickets.
Derbyshire’s highest-ever team score against Glamorgan of 536 all out came in the 2nd innings of their game at Colwyn Bay in 2016, a game in which Aneurin Donald scored the then-fastest double century in the history of the game for Glamorgan, while their highest score in Derbyshire came at Chesterfield in 1997 when they amassed 513-6. Derbyshire’s highest total at Derby is 438 all out in 2011.
Glamorgan’s highest-ever team score against Derbyshire is 587-8 at Cardiff in 1951, while their highest at Derby came in the first innings of their win in 2004 when they made 474 all out in their first innings.
Derbyshire’s lowest all out total is 40, made at Cardiff in 1946, while their lowest at Derby is 104 in 1969.
Glamorgan recorded their lowest score of 49 at Cardiff in 1967; their lowest total at Derby is 63 in 1922.
The highest match aggregate between the two sides came in the game at Colwyn Bay in 2016 when 1,431 runs were scored.
Thirty-four Derbyshire batsmen have scored first class centuries against Glamorgan, John Morris (3) having scored the most, and Luis Reece the most recent, 111 at Derby in May 2019. The most recent century at Swansea came from Alex Hughes (103) in the drawn game 2018.
Other Swansea centurions include Arnold Hamer (120 in 1958), Charlie Lee (104 in 1963) and John Morris (175 in 1988).
Usman Khawaja, in 2018, became the 21st player to score a first class hundred for and against Derbyshire when he made 126 in Glamorgan’s 2nd innings.
Peter Kirsten is the only player to have scored a double century – he actually scored two – 213 not out at Derby in 1980 and 206 not out at Chesterfield in 1978.
That first double-hundred was a masterpiece; in 1980 the first innings of a County Championship match was restricted to 100 overs and when Derbyshire went in to tea on the opening day, Kirsten was 105 not out with 82 overs gone.
After tea, in the remaining 18 overs of the innings, Kirsten scored a further 108 runs to take his score to 213 not out before Derbyshire were forced to declare. It was one of the great innings in Derbyshire’s history.
The highest score on debut against Glamorgan came from Dominic Hewson who scored 102 not out at Cardiff in 2002, while Kim Barnett (108 out of 214) is the only Derbyshire batsman to carry his bat through a completed innings, at Derby in 1993.
Adrian Rollins is the sole Derbyshire batsman to score a hundred before lunch against Glamorgan, making 102 not out at Chesterfield in 1997, and in the same match Rollins – who finished with 148, and Michael May (116) became the only opening Derbyshire pair to both score hundreds in the same innings against Glamorgan.
Luke Sutton is the only Derbyshire wicketkeeper to score a century in fixtures against Glamorgan; he made 120 at Derby in 2003.
There have been 12 instances of a Derbyshire bowler taking 10 wickets in a match against Glamorgan, the best being Bestwick’s 14-111 in that first game at Cardiff in 1921. Two years later, at the same ground, Bestwick took 12-94, and remains the only Derbyshire bowler to achieve the feat twice against Glamorgan.
The others to claim ten in the match are Jon Clare, Kevin Dean, Cliff Gladwin, Michael Holding, Les Jackson, Tommy Mitchell, Derek Morgan, Edwin Smith, Alan Ward, and most recently, Tony Palladino, at Derby in 2018.
Derbyshire bowlers have taken five Glamorgan wicket in an innings om 94 occasions, with Cliff Gladwin (8) and Les Jackson (7) leading the way.
There have been twelve instances of a bowler taking seven or more wickets in an innings with the most recent being Will Davis’ 7-146 at Colwyn Bay in 2016. The last time a Derbyshire bowler took seven in an innings at Derby was in 2002 when Kevin Dean took 7-42, while the best innings analysis at Derby is George Pope’s 7-34 in 1948.
Hamidullah Qadri is the only Derbyshire bowler to take five wickets on his first-class debut against Glamorgan – he took 5-60 at Cardiff in 2017.
David Steele remains the only Derbyshire bowler to take a hat trick against Glamorgan, at Derby in 1980, while Derek Morgan held a record-equalling five catches in an innings against Glamorgan at Chesterfield in 1960.
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