Derbyshire face Sussex in their final home game of the 2019 season at The Pattonair County Ground, Derby, beginning on Monday 16 September. Heritage Officer and Statistician, David Griffin, looks at the statistical background to the game.
Derbyshire and Sussex have played each other 138 times, starting with a drawn game at Derby in 1880, and most recently at Hove in 2018.
Overall, Derbyshire have won 40 times, with Sussex claiming victory on 46 occasions. There have been 50 drawn games, and two abandonments, both at Chesterfield in 1932 and 1938.
Derbyshire’s highest innings total is 603-6 at Derby in the opening county championship game of the 1995 season, game Derbyshire won by a record margin – an innings and 379 runs.
Sussex were bowled out for 111 on the first day, with Devon Malcolm taking 6-61, before Derbyshire began their batting assault. Kim Barnett, Chris Adams, and Daryl Cullinan – on his first-class debut for the county – all scored centuries, and Adrian Rollins weighed in with 52 and Dominic Cork with an unbeaten 84.
Sussex only managed 113 in their second innings, Phil Defreitas being the destroyer with 6-35.
Sussex claimed their revenge at Horsham in 2010, when they won by an innings and 109 runs, amassing 576-3 in their only innings – their highest innings score against Derbyshire. They scored their runs in just 111.4 overs, Ed Joyce, Chris Nash, Ben Brown and Murray Goodwin – the top 4 in the batting order – all registering hundreds.
Derbyshire’s lowest all out total is 61, at Derby in 1907, while Sussex’ lowest is 45 at Hove in 1880.
Derbyshire have scored 44 hundreds against Sussex, with the highest being Stan Worthington’ 238 not out at Derby in 1937, and Kim Barnett (4) scoring the most.
Of the current squad, Billy Godleman is the only Derbyshire player to have scored a century against Sussex, 122 at Hove in 2018.
Wayne Madsen has scored first class hundreds against 12 different opponents; a century against Sussex would make him just the sixth Derbyshire player to score one against 13 different sides.
The last individual hundred for Derbyshire at Derby was Luke Sutton’s 140 in 2001.
Sussex batsmen have scored four double hundreds against Derbyshire, the highest and most recent being Ed Joyce’s 250 at Derby in 2016. The others were scored by John Langridge, 234* at Ilkeston in 1949 and 200* at Derby in 1951, plus CB Fry, who made 226 at Hove in 1904.
Fry was educated at Repton School in Derbyshire, and was an outstanding sportsman, representing England at both cricket and football. For a while he also held a share in the long-jump world record. Even into old age, it was claimed that Fry could deliver his party trick of performing a backwards somersault onto a mantelpiece.
Derbyshire’s highest partnership against Sussex is 254 – for the fourth wicket – by Barnett and Matt Cassar at Horsham in 1998.
Just one player, Harry Storer, has scored a hundred in each innings of a game against Sussex, making 119 and 100 in the game at Derby in 1929.
There have been 15 instances of a Derbyshire batsman being dismissed in the nineties against Sussex, although Laurie Johnson found himself 99 not out at Hove in 1961, when his captain, Donald Carr, declared Derbyshire’s second innings closed. The decision paid off, however, as the visitors won by 65 runs.
Three Derbyshire batsmen have carried their bat through a completed innings against Sussex; Barnett made 73 out of 183 at Derby in 1993, and Adrian Rollins scored 78 out of 220 at Hove in 1996. The other came occasion when Luke Sutton scored his aforementioned 140 out of 263 at Derby in 2001. Sutton almost performed the feat again in the second innings of that game, being the last player dismissed for 54 out of 117. Nonetheless, Sutton’s achievement of batting through both completed innings has only ever been matched on 10 other occasions in the history of the game. It remains the only instance anywhere in the world in the 21st century.
There have been 17 instances of Derbyshire bowlers taking 10 wickets in a match, with Bill Bestwick leading the way with three, two of which came in the same 1906 season. The best match analysis is 15-170 by Hardus Viljoen, which came in the thrilling win at Hove in 2017 and is the fifth best match analysis ever for Derbyshire.
The best analysis at Derby is William Mycroft’s 12-72 in 1882.
There have been 95 instances of Derbyshire bowlers taking 5 wickets in an innings, Bill Copson leading the way with seven; the most recent bowler to perform the feat at Derby was Mark Footitt, who took 6-120 in a first division game in 2013.
Fred Swarbrook took 9-20 in the win at Hove in 1975 (13-62 in the match), the 4th best innings analysis in the county’s history.
The last three instances of Derbyshire bowlers taking ten wickets in a match have all been at Hove – Viljoen in 2017 and Devon Malcolm’s 10-215 in 1996 are the others. The last bowler to take ten wickets in a match at Derby was Les Jackson, who took 10-114 in 1956.
Derbyshire bowlers have taken two hat tricks against Sussex; Henry Evans was the first to achieve the feat in only his third (of five) games for Derbyshire at Hove in 1881, while AEG ‘Dusty’ Rhodes took the other at Derby in 1951.
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