Statistical Preview: Yorkshire

Derbyshire return to Scarborough to face Yorkshire in a first-class match for the first time since the sides drew there in 1991.

Heritage Officer David Griffin previews the match.

These neighbouring counties have met 212 times in first class matches, although three of the scheduled games were abandoned without a ball being bowled with a further 84 drawn.

Derbyshire’s record against Yorkshire is not a glorious one – just 20 wins set against 105 for the visitors – although some supporters will recall a brief golden period from 1989 to 1991 when Derbyshire won three consecutive games at Queen’s Park, Chesterfield, although nobody will recall the three successive wins back in the late 1870s including the only time Derbyshire have ever achieved home and away wins in the same season in 1879.

Scarborough has hosted this fixture 12 times, although Derbyshire have yet to win there, losing five times.

The 1991 match was played over three days and saw Derbyshire holding on for a draw on the final day after following on in reply to Yorkshire’s 418 for eight declared. In a season which saw Mohammad Azharuddin score 2,016 first class runs – still only the third player to score 2,000 or more in a season for the county – he suffered a rare failure in this game, making one and nought. Peter Bowler, with 73 and 48 was the mainstay of both Derbyshire innings.

Derbyshire’s highest innings total against Yorkshire is 523 all out in the drawn fixture at Derby in 2005 when Ant Botha scored an undefeated 156 while Yorkshire’s top score came at Leeds in 2013 when they amassed 677 for seven declared with Joe Root making a superb 236 and Jonny Bairstow 186. This came after Chesney Hughes had scored 270 not out, the second highest individual score in Derbyshire’s history, but even that was not enough to stave off an innings defeat.

Yorkshire also won the return fixture at Chesterfield by an innings while the most recent encounter, at Chesterfield in June, ended in a narrow three wicket win for Yorkshire.

Derbyshire players have registered 59 hundreds in these games, four of which were double centuries, Kim Barnett, and Bill Storer each scoring four tons.

Barnett made 210 not out at Derby in 1987, taking part in a second wicket partnership with Tim Tweats of 417 which remains the highest for any wicket, and in addition to the doubles made by Barnett and Hughes, John Eggar scored 219 at Bradford in 1949 and Dean Jones 214 not out at Abbeydale Park, Sheffield in 1996.

Amongst the current Derbyshire squad, Wayne Madsen has a hundred against Yorkshire to his name, scoring a magnificent 141 at Chesterfield in 2013, rated by many observers as the finest of his many centuries for the county, while in the fixture at Chesterfield earlier this year Leus du Plooy (170) and Haider Ali (146) both made outstanding hundreds.

Bill Storer, one of four Derbyshire wicketkeepers to play Test cricket for England, was the first to score a hundred in each innings of a game for the county, making 100 and 100 not out against Yorkshire at Derby in 1896, while in the same match Harry Bagshaw became the sole Derbyshire player to make a hundred before lunch against Yorkshire.

Derbyshire have managed six century partnerships for the tenth wicket in first class cricket and the two largest were both against Yorkshire: by Alan Hill and Martin Jean-Jacques (132 at Sheffield in 1986) and Geoff Miller and Simon Base (107 at Chesterfield in 1990).

Derbyshire’s bowlers have taken five Yorkshire wickets in an innings 111 times. The legendary 19^th century fast bowler Bill Mycroft performed the feat ten times with a best of seven for 33 at Bramall Lane, Sheffield in 1879. He also recorded the best match figures – 13 for 65 – in the same game.

More recently, the last Derbyshire bowler to take five wickets in an innings was Mark Watt who claimed five for 83 at Chesterfield in June.

The last bowler to take ten in a match was Philip DeFreitas who took 10 for 172 at Derby in 1997.

Five players have registered hundreds at Scarborough with Peter Kirsten’s 140 in 1982 topping the list; Arnold Townsend made 137 in 1947 while John Morris, Chris Adams and Ian Bishop all reached three figures in the same match in 1990.

Only three bowlers have taken five wickets in an innings at Scarborough – all spinners – with ‘Dusty’ Rhodes’ leg breaks recording eight for 162 in 1947. Fred Swarbrook took five for 70 in 1977 and Dallas Moir six for 63 in 1982.

Only one Derbyshire bowler has taken a hat trick against Yorkshire, John Platts performing the feat – the first bowler to take three in three for the county – at Derby in 1880