For the second season in a row Derbyshire open their County Championship programme with a home fixture against Gloucestershire at Derby.
Heritage Officer David Griffin previews the match.
This match begins on 4 April, the earliest date Derbyshire has ever played a County Championship game. There have been earlier first class starts; Derbyshire met Leeds/Bradford UCCE starting on 26 March 2019 and Durham MCCU on 1 April 2014, but their previous earliest scheduled Championship starts were in 2012 – against Northamptonshire, and 2024 – against Gloucestershire.
Sadly, the 2024 fixture was abandoned without a ball bowled, the first time Derbyshire’s opening Championship game had fallen foul to the weather in its entirety, and the 28th first class abandonment in the club’s history.
These two sides meet for the 139th scheduled time in first class cricket, Derbyshire having won on 32 occasions. Gloucestershire have triumphed 50 times with 55 games ending as a draw, two of which were abandoned.
The sides last met at Bristol in late May 2024 and drew a high scoring game with Matt Lamb making a splendid 207 and Brooke Guest 95 in Derbyshire’s 526 before James Bracey and Graeme van Buuren both made hundreds for the home side.
Derbyshire’s sole first class tie was against Gloucestershire at Bristol in 1987 while the same venue hosted the first complete abandoned match, in 1980.
They first met at Derby in August 1886, when the visitors won by 47 runs. The legendary WG Grace scored just 22 runs across two innings for Gloucestershire but bowled unchanged throughout Derbyshire’s first innings of 55 taking six for 34 off 21.2 overs
Derbyshire’s highest innings total of 545 for nine came at Bristol in 2015, an innings dominated by Martin Guptill’s 227 including 11 sixes, a club record, which helped secure a seven wicket win for the visitors.
Gloucestershire’s largest total of 577 for nine was also at Bristol in a drawn game in 2002.
The highest individual score for Derbyshire is 229, by John Morris at Cheltenham in 1993, an innings of brilliance on a fast pitch against high quality pace bowling from the West Indian Courtney Walsh.
Gloucestershire’s top individual score of 237 was made by the legendary Wally Hammond at Bristol in 1938, one of six hundreds he made against Derbyshire. Shaun Young also scored 237, at Cheltenham in 1997.
The best bowling figures for Derbyshire are still George Davidson’s nine for 42 at Derby in 1886, although Ken Graveney managed to take all ten for Gloucestershire – for 66 runs – at Chesterfield in 1949.
The best match figures for Derbyshire are Les Townsend’s 14 for 90 at Queen’s Park in 1933, and for the visitors Tom Goddard’s 15 for 107 at Bristol in 1949 tops the list.
There hasn’t been a positive result in games between these two sides since Gloucestershire’s last win at Derby in August 2019, while Derbyshire’s most recent victory was by 157 runs at Bristol in the final game of the 2017 season.
Derbyshire recorded a win against Gloucestershire in the most remarkable match this writer has ever witnessed. On a green-tinged pitch in late August 2010 Derbyshire were dismissed for 44 in a mere 16.1 overs, James Franklin taking seven for 14 for the hosts.
Before tea on the second day, however, following a multitude of twists and turns and a fine 96 not out from Chesney Hughes, Derbyshire won the game by 54 runs. Graham Wagg with six wickets, and Tim Groenewald and Steffan Jones with five apiece took the bowling honours.
The first day score of 44 all out is unsurprisingly the lowest first innings total Derbyshire have ever made before going on to win a match.
In 2001 Chris Bassano scored 186 not out and 106 against Gloucestershire at Derby, the first player in the history of the game to score hundreds in each innings on his Championship debut. Also memorable In a drawn game played in hot and steamy conditions, the vacant Grandstand Hotel caught fire resulting in a plume of grey smoke floating across the outfield as play continued.
Kim Barnett is the sole player to score a hundred before lunch against Gloucestershire; indeed, he reached three figures at just after 12.30pm on the opening day of the game at Derby in 1988. He dominated proceedings to such an extent that when he was dismissed, he had made 175 out of 250 runs scored while he was in the middle.
The highest partnership against Gloucestershire is the 302 added by Morris and Cork (with help from Matthew Vandrau when Cork retired hurt) for the fifth wicket at Cheltenham in 1993 while more recently Madsen and Alex Hughes have taken part in two double century partnerships at Bristol, 278 for the fourth wicket in 2019 and 233 for the third wicket in 2017.
Only three players have ever scored a hundred or more runs and taken ten or more wickets in a game, the most recent instance being against Gloucestershire at Derby in 2008 when Graham Wagg scored 29 and 72 and took six for 56 and four for 77.
