Heritage Insight: Repton School Revisted

Derbyshire will face Worcestershire at Repton School in their Metro Bank One Day Cup game, sponsored by Carfulan, on Friday 15 August and Heritage Officer David Griffin offers his thoughts on the county’s return to this famous ground.

Derbyshire have played competitive first team cricket on 21 different grounds, including Repton School where they played a single one day match in 1988.

Repton School was founded in 1557 and has a remarkable record of producing well over one hundred first class cricketers including three England Test match captains, CB Fry, Hon. FS Gough-Calthorpe and DB Carr.

Donald Carr, captain of the county side from 1955 to 1962 remains the only Derbyshire player to captain England in a Test match.

Derbyshire’s earliest home cricket was played at The County Ground in Derby, Wirksworth, Saltergate in Chesterfield, Long Eaton’s Recreation Ground, Queen’s Park, Chesterfield, Glossop, Blackwell, The Town Ground at Burton-on-Trent, Buxton and Ilkeston.

Immediately either side of World War II Burton-on-Trent’s Ind Coope ground was added to the list, and so was Sheffield’s Abbeydale Park, before another Burton venue, the Bass Worthington Ground joined the roster in the mid-1970s for a couple of games.

Following boundary changes Abbeydale Park was shifted into Yorkshire and thus Derbyshire have the distinction of having played there as both the home and away side.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Derbyshire pursued a strategy of once more taking cricket around the county, and beyond, into Staffordshire. Darley Dale, Heanor and Trent College School at Long Eaton all hosted matches, and in the 1980s the county club entered into a partnership with the Staffordshire Moorlands District Council which guaranteed Derbyshire a fixed fee of £5,000 per game for agreeing to take one day games over the border into Staffordshire.

Between 1985 and 1993 Staffordshire venues Knypersley, Leek, Cheadle and Checkley all welcomed Derbyshire Sunday League matches and in 1988 the county decided to take a Refuge Assurance Sunday League game against Middlesex to Repton School.

In a rain-hit summer, the coverings at Repton were always unlikely to be able to cope with inclement weather and heavy rain during the week leading up to the game left the outfield sodden and the pitch damp under lightweight coverings.

Under extremely low and dark clouds and with the game reduced to 38 overs per side following a light shower just before the toss took place, the match got underway with Derbyshire put into bat. They were quickly in trouble at 10 for three before subsiding to 130 all out. Steve Goldsmith made an entertaining 61 but Angus Fraser produced outstanding figures of 8-2-8-3.

Middlesex replied with 32 for no wicket but after 10.2 overs further rain came and the match – before the days of Duckworth Lewis – ended as a no result.

At the time only two Reptonians were playing county cricket, and both – Chris Adams for Derbyshire and John Carr for Middlesex – appeared in this game.

Since 1999, Repton School has staged numerous second eleven matches and in 2020 was Derbyshire’s bio-secure base during the lockdown period ahead of the shortened cricket season.