Derbyshire’s next fixture is their only red-ball game against Worcestershire this season, and the first between these two sides in Worcestershire since the final game of the 2016 season.
Heritage Officer and Statistician, David Griffin, looks at the statistical background to the game.
There have been 146 scheduled fixtures between these two counties; Derbyshire winning 47 of them, Worcestershire 44, with 53 draws, and two complete abandonments, at Chesterfield in 1946 and Worcester in 1969.
This game was scheduled to be staged at New Road, Worcester, but as a result of serious flooding in mid-June, an early decision was taken to relocate the game to Kidderminster.
This will be Derbyshire’s 13th visit to Kidderminster for a first-class game; the first was in 1926 when Derbyshire won by 83 runs, while the most recent game was in August 1999 when Derbyshire also won, by six wickets. Derbyshire have won four games there, Worcestershire five, with the other three ending as draws.
Derbyshire’s highest innings total is 513-8 declared at Chesterfield in 1933, while their lowest is 54 at Worcester in 1935.
Worcestershire highest innings total is 560 at Kidderminster in 1993, and their lowest is 46 at Derby in 1922.
Derbyshire’s batsmen have scored 45 centuries against Worcestershire, the first by Walter Sugg at Derby in July 1899 – the only instance of a Derbyshire player scoring a century before lunch against Worcestershire. The highest individual score is Billy Godleman’s 204 at Derby in 2016, while TS ‘Stan’ Worthington also made a double hundred – 200 not out – at Chesterfield in 1933.
Four players have scored three hundreds against Worcestershire; Chris Adams, Kim Barnett, Wayne Madsen and John Wright – and Harvey Hosein of the current squad has also scored a century, his maiden ton in the final game of the 2016 season at Worcester.
Two Worcestershire batsmen have made double hundreds against Derbyshire with Stephen Moore’s 246 at Worcester in 2005 heading the list, followed by Tim Curtis’ 228 not out at Derby in 1992. Moore is the only batsmen to score a century for Worcestershire against Derbyshire, and then subsequently score one for Derbyshire.
In May 1992, three Derbyshire players all scored hundreds in the second innings of the game at Derby; Chris Adams (121), Peter Bowler (112) and Steve Goldsmith (100*) as Derbyshire amassed 433-7.
In 1980, at Worcester, Derbyshire’s opening batsmen, Barry Wood and John Wright, uniquely for Derbyshire at that time, put on century opening partnerships (114 and 131) in each innings of the game. Only once since, by Iain Anderson and Kim Barnett against Kent at Chesterfield in 1983, has this feat been achieved since.
Wood (153) and Wright (141) again featured in the game at Chesterfield in 1981 when they added 283 for the first wicket in the second innings, the only instance of both opening batsmen scoring hundreds in the same innings against Worcestershire and only the 14th instance overall. Derbyshire won a very close game by just three runs.
In addition to the aforementioned Hosein, James Pipe is the only other Derbyshire wicketkeeper to score a century against Worcestershire, scoring a quite brilliant 133 at Chesterfield in 2008, reaching his hundred off just 71 balls.
Derbyshire’s bowlers have taken five wickets in an innings against Worcestershire on 86 occasions, with Tommy Mitchell performing the feat 9 times. Cliff Gladwin took five wickets on eight occasions, with Bill Bestwick and Les Jackson performing the feat seven times.
The most recent occurrences were Mark Footitt’s 6-115 in the first innings at Derby in 2014 and Wes Durston’s 5-19 in the second innings of the same game.
The best innings analysis is Gladwin’s 9-41 in the second innings at Amblecote in 1952 which followed his 7-43 in the first innings giving him match figures of 16-84. Only Bill Mycroft’s 17-103 at Southampton in 1876 improves on Gladwin’s effort, and it would be a further 65 years before any Derbyshire bowler came close to matching Gladwin’s effort when Hardus Viljoen took 15-170 at Hove in 2017.
There have been 15 instances of a bowler taking ten wickets in the match, with Bestwick, Gladwin and Mitchell all doing it three times. The most recent was Devon Malcolm’s 10-179 at Kidderminster in 1995.
There have been two hat tricks against Worcestershire, both taken by Les Jackson, at Kidderminster in 1958, and at Derby in 1960.
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