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Ian Nicholson contacted us with an enquiry about the legendary 1936 County Championship-winning team.
Ian wrote; “Other than the well-known 1936 team photo (which it seems was taken earlier in the season before Derbyshire actually won the Championship), are there any other team photos from 1936?”
Our Heritage Officer, David Griffin, writes;
That is an interesting question because the image which is acknowledged as the definitive 1936 photograph must have been taken – as Ian suggests – during a very brief period in that season between 22 June and 7 July.
We can date the photograph based on the eleven players pictured, because Harry Storer, who only played in nine games, helps to make the task somewhat easier.
By examining the scorecards for Storer’s nine appearances it can be determined that the eleven players in the photograph only played together in the same game on five occasions, as follows;
(the date shown indicates the start date of the game)
However, there is no other information available which might help to establish the precise date on which the photograph was taken although it was clearly taken on a match day – Richardson has his pads on, Harry Elliott is the only one wearing a cap, and Stan Worthington has a cigarette in his hand. It looks like a hastily grabbed photograph opportunity, taken just before the start of play, or during an interval.
There are two other team photographs which, it is claimed, were also taken in 1936, although there has to be a doubt over one of them.
This is an unusual image in that the captain, Arthur Richardson, is wearing a suit.
Richardson captained Derbyshire in 26 of the 28 championship games, WW Hillwood, and NAM Walker in the other two – actually, the opening two matches of the season.
There are 12 players in the photograph – unusual on team pictures of that era – including George Pope who only played four games in 1936, and Elijah Carrington who played in seven.
George Pope and Carrington played in four matches together, although, in the first of them, the side was captained by Hill-Wood.
It can only be an assumption, but it may be that the team was assembled specifically for the photograph and Richardson simply decided not to get changed into his cricket kit, because it looks like a staged image with the two Popes offering a sense of symmetry on the back row. If, however, this is a staged photograph, the mystery is why Charlie Elliott, who played 18 of the 28 matches is absent.
This image is arguably the most interesting because at no time did this eleven players play in the same game during 1936.
The giveaway with this photograph is the presence of Harry Storer (front left), George Pope (rear third from right) and Elijah Carrington (rear extreme right). They never played in the same game together in 1936, although the image has always been represented as having been taken that year.
However, this eleven did take the field on several occasions in 1934 and 1935, so it is reasonable to assume that the image was taken before the championship-winning season.
The building in the background looks like the old wooden pavilion at Derby which served the old ground, positioned to the west of the current pitch, in the area now occupied by the hotel.
Footnote
The 1936 season consisted of 28 matches and Albert Alderman, Harry Elliott, Alf Pope, Denis Smith, and Leslie Townsend were ever-present, with Bill Copson, Tommy Mitchell, Arthur Richardson, and Stan Worthington playing in 26 games each.
Charlie Elliott played in 18 games and Alan Skinner in 12. Nine other players played between one and nine matches.
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