Statistical Preview: Middlesex

Derbyshire return to red ball action following a fortnight of Twenty20 cricket with their return fixture at Chesterfield against Middlesex who they met in the opening game of the season.

Heritage Officer David Griffin previews the match and looks at the statistical highlights of the past.

Derbyshire and Middlesex meet for the 103rd time in first class matches and for the first time in the championship at Chesterfield since 1983 when the visitors won by 9 wickets. This will be Middlesex’ tenth visit to Queen’s Park for a championship game.

The counties first met at Lord’s in 1929 and Middlesex have claimed 36 wins to date, with Derbyshire victorious on 24 occasions. There have been 42 drawn matches.

Derbyshire’s highest team total is 557-6 declared at Derby in 2019 when five Derbyshire players made scores of 90 or more, a unique occurrence in the county’s history; Leus du Plooy (118), Billy Godleman (102), Luis Reece (96), Fynn Hudson-Prentice (99) and Anuj Dal (92) were the record-breakers.

Hudson-Prentice is the only player to be dismissed for 99 on his debut for Derbyshire, and later in the game became the 5^th player in Derbyshire’s history to take a wicket with his first ball for the club.

The record margin win of 363 runs came at Derby in 1996 when a title-chasing Derbyshire destroyed the visitors thanks to a hundred in each innings by Chris Adams, a further century from Dean Jones and 12-83 in the match for Andrew Harris. It was as comprehensive a win as ever recorded by the county in first class matches.

That 1996 result was revenge for the drubbing at the same venue in 1994 when Middlesex scored 545 and won by an innings and 96 runs, Richard Johnson taking 10-45 in Derbyshire’s second innings, the best innings figures ever recorded at Derby.

Twenty two different players have scored a total of 31 hundreds against Middlesex including Wayne Madsen, Reece, Godleman and du Plooy of the current squad, with a highest of 192 not out by Michael Di Venuto in a win at Lord’s in 2002. He followed it up with 113 in the second innings and remains the only Derbyshire player to score two hundreds in a match at Lord’s.

Chris Adams (3) has scored the most hundreds against Middlesex, and although the sides have met on nine occasions at Chesterfield, no Derbyshire player has ever scored a hundred there against them.

With the ball, 25 bowlers have taken 5 wickets in an innings 51 times, with Les Jackson’s 8 instances leading the way. Jackson produced the best innings analysis of 8-44 at The Ind Coope Ground, Burton-on-Trent in 1960 while the best analysis at Chesterfield remains Tommy Mitchell’s seven for 86 in 1933.

The last Derbyshire bowler to take 5 wickets in an innings was Tony Palladino who bagged 5-39 at Derby in 2011.

There have been 9 instances of Derbyshire bowlers taking 10 wickets in a match with Tommy Mitchell and Jackson performing the feat twice apiece with Mitchell’s 13-113 the best, at Derby in 1934. The best effort at Chesterfield came in 1957 when Cliff Gladwin took 11-41 in a remarkable game which Derbyshire won by an innings after making a mere 153 in their only innings.

Middlesex were bowled out for 29 in their second innings in 30.2 overs with Gladwin taking five for 18 in 14 overs and his opening partner Les Jackson recording figures of 11-6-7-3.

Derbyshire’s highest partnership for any wicket against Middlesex is 219 – for the first wicket – by Ben Slater and Luis Reece at Derby in 2018.

Eddie Gothard, who took a mere 18 first class wickets for the county – including Don Bradman in 1948 – took a hat trick against Middlesex at Derby in 1947 and then, somewhat improbably, persuaded the three victims to pose for a photograph with him at the close of play.

87 opposition wickets have fallen to the relatively unusual dismissal of Hit Wicket in Derbyshire’s long history, the most recent of which occurred in 2018 when Lockie Ferguson removed Nick Gubbins in that fashion during the game at Lord’s.

Vitality Blast 2022 – Tickets on sale now!

Tickets for all of Derbyshire’s Vitality Blast fixtures are on sale now.

The Falcons will be aiming to extend their Vitality Blast winning streak at Queen’s Park to four matches, when they take on Yorkshire Vikings to close out the BRM Solicitors Festival of Cricket, in association with Chesterfield Borough Council, on Saturday 18 June.