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Kev Chandler contacted us about a one-day game at Cheadle in Staffordshire.
Kev said; “I remember when Derbyshire played Glamorgan at Cheadle Cricket Club in Staffordshire. I remember the ground was packed out, I cannot remember the score or the teams so I would love you to help me out is there any photos and a team line up and a piece that can go on the website.”
Our Heritage Officer, David Griffin, writes;
Derbyshire took up an offer from Staffordshire Moorlands District Council of a £5,000 guarantee for a series of Sunday League matches starting in 1985 at Knypersley.
Three other venues were used between then and 1993, including Leek, Checkley and Cheadle.
Cheadle – along with Sheffield’s Abbeydale Park – is one of only two grounds on which Derbyshire have played home and away fixtures. The away game was against Minor Counties North in 1973 – a five-wicket win for Derbyshire in a Benson and Hedges group game; and the home one came in July 1987 against Glamorgan.
The game was played on a rather typical club pitch, lacking any real pace and with a slow and small outfield.
Kim Barnett won the toss and asked Glamorgan to bat and their innings never really got going until the last five overs when 38 runs were added, Michael Holding and Ole Mortensen both bowling their allocated eight overs for just 20 runs, Holding taking two wickets and Mortensen one.
Martin Jean-Jacques took 3-38 and Bruce Roberts 3-44 as only Ravi Shastri, with a careful 41, and later in the innings, the 20-year-old Ian Smith with 34, taking the visitors to 173-9.
Derbyshire’s reply saw Maher run out for eight, but Barnett (28) attacked from the start, striking three boundaries off one Simon Base over. Base would subsequently join Derbyshire and become an integral part of their 1990 Sunday League-winning team.
John Morris looked in a different class to all the other batsmen in the game – not for the first time – and made a fine 49, and Iain Anderson made 22, but Holding’s promotion to number six failed and Derbyshire arrived at the last over needing 11 runs with only one wicket in hand. Rajesh ‘Reg’ Sharma was joined at the wicket by Ole Mortensen for that final over and hopes amongst the large crowd were not hopeful of a home win.
However, the scores were level after four balls of the final over, thanks to Sharma’s sensible and controlled batting, but Mortensen was on strike with just one run required and two balls still to come from Geoff Holmes.
Cometh the hour, cometh the man – Mortensen heaved at the penultimate ball which went flying towards the mid-wicket boundary for 4. Cue pandemonium on and off the field.
The gate receipts were £2,021 – only the Sunday League games against Somerset and Nottinghamshire (at Derby) and Yorkshire (at Chesterfield) produced a higher take and there was a noticeably good turnout from local people.
Derbyshire’s team was Barnett, Maher, Roberts, Morris, Anderson, Holding, Finney, Sharma, Newman, Jean-Jacques and Mortensen.
Glamorgan’s team was Morris, Cottey, Holmes, Maynard, Shastri, Todd, Derrick, Smith, Base, Metson and Barwick.
One final aside, a friend of mine who attended the game with me, told a story the following week about a gentleman who drove to the wrong Cheadle – the Greater Manchester one – and missed the game despite setting off from Chesterfield at 11am for a 2pm start.
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