Statistical Preview: Sussex

Derbyshire’s 2021 season ends with a trip to the south coast to face Sussex at The 1^st Central County Ground, Hove. Heritage Officer David Griffin previews the match and looks at the statistical highlights of the past.

This will be the 140th scheduled game between Derbyshire and Sussex dating back to 1880 when the two sides first met in a drawn fixture at Derby.

They have been fairly evenly-matched over the subsequent 140 years, Derbyshire winning 41 games, Sussex 46, with 50 draws, Additionally, two games were abandoned without a ball being bowled – both at Chesterfield – in 1932 and 1938.

Derby (45 matches) and Hove (42) have hosted these games most often, but fixtures between these two counties have also been staged at Arundel, Burton-on-Trent, Buxton, Chesterfield, Eastbourne, Hastings, Horsham, Ilkeston, Sheffield and Worthing.

Derbyshire’s largest margin of victory came in 1995 when they won by and innings and  379 runs at Derby, while their narrowest winning margin is just one wicket, at Horsham in 1988 and at Eastbourne in 1994.

Sussex recorded their biggest win by an innings and 274 runs at Hove in 1909, with their narrowest margin of two wickets coming at the same ground in 1934.

Derbyshire’s highest innings total of 603-6 came in that huge innings victory in 1995 when, in one of the most one-sided games in the county’s history, Sussex were dismissed for 111 on the opening day of the season with Devon Malcolm doing most of the damage, taking 6-61.

By the close of the first day, Derbyshire were 262-1 and when they declared, Kim Barnett (164), Chris Adams (111), and Daryll Cullinan (134 on his Derbyshire debut)  had taken complete control of the game. A quickfire 84 not out from Dominic Cork left Sussex in tatters before Phillip DeFreitas took 6-35 in the Sussex second innings of only 113.

Fifteen years later, in 2010, Sussex exacted some revenge in making their highest innings total against Derbyshire, a remarkable 576-3 off only 111.4 overs at Horsham; four Sussex batsmen scored centuries and four Derbyshire bowlers conceded more than a hundred runs as the home side won by an innings and 109 runs.

Derbyshire’s lowest completed innings total of 61 all out came in their eight-wicket defeat at Derby in 1907, while Sussex’s lowest total of 45 was in their nine-wicket defeat at Hove in 1880.

Thirty batsmen have scored 46 centuries for Derbyshire, Kim Barnett (4), scoring the most and Stan Worthington (238*) the highest, at Derby in 1937.

Two of the finest modern-day hundreds by Derbyshire batsmen were against Sussex, Bruce Roberts’ 184 at Chesterfield in 1987 and Luis Reece’s 184 at Derby in 2019 when few observers of either innings could recall many better. Both were attacking innings, featuring powerful and stylish pulls, cuts and drives, and the only downside for the spectators was that the innings’ had to end.

Derbyshire’s captain, Billy Godleman has registered two hundreds against Sussex, 122 at Hove in 2018 and 106 at Derby in 2019.

Derbyshire’s record partnership against Sussex is 274 for the first wicket between Reece and Godleman at Derby in 2019, although their highest at Hove is the 160 added for the fifth wicket by Laurie Johnson and Derek Morgan in 1964.

Harry Storer is the only Derbyshire player to make a century in each innings against Sussex, scoring 119 and 100 at Derby in 1929, while Cullinan is the only player to register a debut hundred against Sussex, in 1995.

Kim Barnett (in 1993), Adrian Rollins (1996) and Luke Sutton ( 2001) all carried their bat through a completed innings for Derbyshire against Sussex, with Sutton also being the last man out in the second innings of the match at Derby.

There have been 96 instances of Derbyshire bowlers taking five wickets in an innings against Sussex, by 43 different players, Bill Copson leading the way with seven five-fors.

The best innings analysis is the remarkable 9-20 by Fred Swarbrook at Hove in 1975, the fourth best bowling analysis in the county’s history, while the best match analysis came in 2017 when Hardus Viljoen took 15-170 (7-80 and 8-90) in a magnificent display of sustained fast bowling at Hove.

Viljoen’s analysis stands as the fifth best match figures in Derbyshire’s history.

Two bowlers have taken hat tricks for Derbyshire against Sussex; Henry Evans at Hove in 1881, and AEG ‘Dusty’ Rhodes at Derby in 1951, while the rarer feat of three wickets in four balls was achieved by Les Townsend at Chesterfield in 1928.

Only five Derbyshire bowlers have ever taken a wicket with their first ball in first class cricket, including FC ‘Jim’ Brailsford who dismissed Sussex’s Ted Dexter at Derby in 1958. Brailsford only played three matches, and this was his only wicket.

Last 10 results between Derbyshire and Sussex:

2019  Derby             Derbyshire won by 181 runs

2018  Hove               Sussex won by 243 runs

2017  Hove               Derbyshire won by 45 runs

2016  Hove               Sussex won by ten wickets

2016  Derby             Drawn

2013  Hove               Derbyshire won by nine wickets

2013  Derby             Sussex won by nine wickets

2010  Horsham       Sussex won by an innings and 109 runs

2010  Derby             Drawn

2001  Derby             Sussex won by 130 runs