Derbyshire reach the halfway point of their Championship season with a home game against Kent at Derby.
Heritage Officer David Griffin previews the match.
The sides have met on 141 occasions in first-class cricket, Derbyshire winning 40 games and Kent 58. A further 42 matches were drawn, while one match was abandoned without a ball bowled, at Chesterfield in September 2017.
This will be the first game between the two sides since Kent won by 130 runs at Derby in 2021, with the visitors having spent the last three seasons in the first division.
Derbyshire’s highest team total is 583 for four at Derby in 2009 when Chris Rogers scored 208 and Garry Park 178. Of more statistical significance, however, is that during the course of this innings, there were four century partnerships, a unique occurrence in Derbyshire’s history.
Rogers and Wayne Madsen added 216 for the first wicket, Rogers and Park 125 for the second wicket, Park and Greg Smith 118 for the third wicket and Park and John Sadler an unbroken 100 for the fifth wicket.
Derbyshire’s lowest all out total against Kent is 36, at Wirksworth in 1874, although despite the paucity of that second innings total, Derbyshire still won, by 33 runs.
Kent’s highest team total is 615 all out at Derby in 1908 which unsurprisingly led them to an innings and 234 runs win, Kent’s largest margin of victory.
Kent’s lowest total is 25 all out which came in their defeat at Wirksworth in 1874. The match-winner for Derbyshire was their first fast bowling champion, Bill Mycroft, who recorded match figures of eight for 23 off 50 four-ball overs.
Derbyshire’s widest margin of victory came in 1950 when Cliff Gladwin’s nine wickets in the match and Alan Revill’s 96 saw Derbyshire record an innings and 98 runs victory at Derby.
A quirky statistic arose from the game at Derby in 1987 when both sides were all out for 287 in their first innings, only the fourth time in Derbyshire’s history that matching all out first innings totals have been made. There has been no repeat occurrence since.
An indication of how county cricket used to be shared out around the counties is confirmed by the list of grounds on which these two sides have met in first class cricket; Blackheath, Burton-on-Trent (two grounds), Buxton, Canterbury, Catford, Chatham, Chesterfield, Dartford, Derby, Dover, Folkestone, Gillingham, Gravesend, Ilkeston, Maidstone, Sheffield, Tonbridge, Tunbridge Wells (two grounds), and Wirksworth.
There have been 45 first-class hundreds scored against Kent, the first by Ludford Docker (107) at Maidstone in 1881 and the most recent by Wayne Madsen (163) and Shiv Thakor (123) at Canterbury in 2016.
Unusually, both Madsen and Thakor had scored hundreds earlier in the season against Kent when the sides met at Derby.
Chris Adams’ 216 at Maidstone in 1995 remains the highest individual score, while Donald Carr, Wayne Madsen and Donald Carr have all made three hundreds, more than any other player.
Carr (1959) and Ian Hall (1965) both scored a hundred in each innings against Kent, and Billy Godleman repeated the feat with 108 and 105* at Derby in 2015.
Two batters have carried their bat in a completed innings against Kent; Denis Smith, who scored 57 out of 112 at Ilkeston in 1939 and Alan Hill, who made 48 out of 127 at Maidstone in 1984.
There have been 119 instances of Derbyshire bowlers taking five wickets in an innings, beginning with Mycroft’s five for eight at Wirksworth in 1874, and most recently Tony Palladino’s five for 113 at Derby in 2018.
An unusual statistic arose from the game at Derby in 2018 when for only the second time in their history, and the first time since 1901, Derbyshire followed on despite scoring 400 in their first innings.
Mycroft took five wickets in an innings 13 times against Kent – taking 113 wickets against them in 14 matches at an average of 11.07.
The best innings figures, however, belong to Stan Worthington who took eight for 41 at Chesterfield in 1928, a feat almost matched by Kevin Dean who took eight for 52 at Canterbury in 2000.
The rarer feat of 10 wickets in a match has been performed 15 times with Mycroft once again to the fore with three instances and a best of 12-42 at Catford in 1875.
Three bowlers have taken hat tricks against Kent – all at Derby – Joseph Marlow in 1884, Dominic Cork in 1994, and Kevin Dean in 1998, while the even more unusual feat of taking three wickets in four balls has been performed twice, at Derby in 1876 by Walter Hickton and at Canterbury in 1931 by Les Townsend.
Two debutants have taken five Kent wickets in an innings; George Hay (five for 15) at Derby in 1875, and Alan Mellor (five for 52) at Maidstone in 1978.
For the opposition, Wally Hardinge made five hundreds against Derbyshire; a player of remarkable durability, Hardinge played over 600 first-class matches for Kent between 1902 and 1933.
Kent’s highest individual score against Derby came from Bill Ashdown at Dover in August 1935 when he made an unbeaten 305, the fourth highest individual score made against Derbyshire.
Amongst the bowlers AP ‘Tich’ Freeman took five Derbyshire wickets in an innings an amazing 21 times, including Kent’s best in these contests of nine for 50 at Ilkeston in 1930. Unsurprisingly Freeman took ten wickets in a match seven times against Derbyshire although the best match figures were recorded by the Australian born England Test cricketer Martin McCague who took 15 for 147 at Derby in 1994.
McCague’s Herculean effort came in the same game in which Cork took a hat trick and were the best match figures by an opposition bowler since 1949 and remain the fifth best match figures ever against Derbyshire.
Kent’s bowlers have taken four hat tricks against Derbyshire; William Pearce at Derby in 1878, Colin Blythe at Gravesend in 1910, Fred Ridgeway at Gravesend in 1951 when he took four wickets in four balls, and Dean Headley at Derby in 1996.
Headley’s hat trick was a dramatic affair; Kent scored 445 in their first innings and when Derbyshire began their reply just before lunch on day two Kim Barnett struck Headley’s first two balls for four before the bowler removed Barnett, Chris Adams and Dean Jones with the next three.
