Derbyshire’s fixtures for the second phase of this season’s LV= County Championship have been confirmed.
Derbyshire will compete in Division Three, alongside Worcestershire, Leicestershire, Kent, Sussex and Middlesex, with games against the latter four to come.
The first game will be on the road, away to Middlesex at Lord’s beginning on Monday 30 August, before back-to-back home games against Leicestershire and Kent, which begin on Sunday 5 and Sunday 12 September respectively.
The final game of the season will be against Sussex at The 1st Central County Ground, starting on Tuesday 21 September.
Instead of facing Worcestershire again, each side will take half of the points picked up against each other into the new division, meaning Billy Godleman’s side will start on 9.5 points.
Despite the difficult red ball campaign so far, Derbyshire have seen a number of impressive individual performances, with Matt Critchley (721) among the leading run-scorers in the country, while Ben Aitchison, Sam Conners, Michael Cohen and Fynn Hudson-Prentice have all taken maiden first-class five-wicket hauls.
Head of Cricket, Dave Houghton, said: “It’s a difficult group, the only thing similar with all of the teams is that we’ve had difficult seasons, we’re all in the same boat from that perspective.”
“There are some big clubs in Division Three and it’s not going to be a simple group, but if we can have a good run and finish in the top two, that will be a year of progression for us, and it will be great to have our Members with us for these games.
“The most important thing for me is that we’ve not won a game in four-day cricket yet, so our first priority is to pick up some wins, if that puts us at the top of the group then great, but we need to get back to winning ways above all.”
Fixtures
Middlesex
Lord’s
Monday 30 August – Thursday 2 September
Leicestershire
The Incora County Ground
Sunday 5 – Wednesday 8 September
Kent
The Incora County Ground
Sunday 12 – Wednesday 15 September
Sussex
The 1st Central County Ground
Tuesday 21 – Friday 24 September
