Derbyshire’s penultimate away game sees them return to Northampton for the third time in 2018, and an opportunity to win three in a row across each format of the game at that ground this summer.
Heritage Officer, David Griffin, examines the statistical background to the game.
There have been 172 scheduled fixtures between these two counties, with Derbyshire winning 51 times, Northamptonshire 60 times, with 60 draws and 1 abandonment.
Between 1930 and 1934, Derbyshire beat Northamptonshire on 8 consecutive occasions, the best such run in Derbyshire’s history.
The sides met most recently at Queen’s Park, Chesterfield, when Matthew Critchley’s 10-wicket haul and Wayne Madsen’s 116, secured a thrilling win by 39 runs in scorching conditions at the end of July.
Derbyshire’s highest innings total against Northamptonshire is 569, in 2012, when Wayne Madsen scored an unbeaten 231 – the highest individual score for the county against Northants – and Tom Poynton scored 106, adding 261 for the 9th wicket, the 3rd highest in the history of the game, bettered only by the 268 of Commins and Boje in Harare in 1994/95 and the world record of Warren and Chapman, for Derbyshire at Blackwell in 1910.
Two other Derbyshire batsmen have recorded double centuries in these games; Michael Di Venuto scoring 230 at Derby in 2003, and Peter Kirsten 209, also at Derby, in 1980.
Northamptonshire have scored 4 double centuries against Derbyshire, the highest being 241 not out by Alfred Bakewell at Chesterfield in 1936, followed by Wayne Larkins 236 at Derby in 1983, while David Sales made 200 not out at Derby in 2003 and Harold Pretty scored 200 at Chesterfield in 1906.
Derbyshire’s highest-ever run chase in the 4th innings of a county championship match was made against Northamptonshire, at Derby in 1982. This game saw Derbyshire concede a 167-run deficit in the first innings, although Northants declined to enforce the follow-on. They batted again and set Derbyshire a victory total of 350 in just over 90 overs.
Derbyshire reached their total thanks largely to one of John Wright’s great innings, ending the match unbeaten on 185. Derbyshire’s top five in the batting order in this game were Barry Wood, John Wright, Peter Kirsten, John Hampshire and Kim Barnett, and sides tended not to offer Derbyshire very much in the way of final day run chases. This was the summer in which Kirsten and Wright broke record after record, ending the season with more 100s than any batsmen in the club’s history. Kirsten’s 8 centuries are still a county record, and Wright’s 7 has only been equalled by Azharuddin, in 1991.
There have been 66 hundreds scored for Derbyshire against Northamptonshire, with Garnet Lee and John Wright scoring the most – 5 – while two players, Rob Bailey and David Steele, have scored hundreds for Derbyshire against Northamptonshire, and vice versa.
Uniquely, for Derbyshire, on two occasions both opening batsmen have scored hundreds against Northamptonshire; in 2010, Chris Rogers (135) and Wayne Madsen (179) performed the feat at Northampton, while in 2017, Luis Reece (168) and Billy Godleman (156) did it at Derby, and in the process added 333 for the first wicket – the highest first wicket stand in the county’s history and the third-highest overall. Luis Reece’s 168 is the second highest debut score by a Derbyshire player, bettered only by Madsen’s 170 at Cheltenham in 2009.
In 2015, Matthew Critchley became the youngest player to make a first class hundred for Derbyshire, aged 18 years and 270 days. Northamptonshire had reduced Derbyshire to 151-7 when he arrived at the crease, and then made an unbeaten 137 off 179 balls, adding 162 runs with Tom Taylor for the eighth wicket.
The highest match aggregate between these two sides is 1,464 runs at Derby, in 2015, and the most sixes in an individual innings is 8, by Garnet Lee in his 141 at Northampton, in 1931, bettered only by Martin Guptill’s 11 sixes at Bristol in 2015.
Bowlers have also prevailed against Northamptonshire, with 25 instances of players taking 10 wickets in a match, and while the most recent is the aforementioned effort by Critchley earlier this year, the best is Sam Cadman’s 14-104 at Northampton in 1920. Tommy Mitchell (5) has taken 10 in a match on the most occasions.
Garnet Lee clearly enjoyed playing against Northamptonshire, scoring 100 and taking 12-43 at Northampton in 1927, the first instance of a Derbyshire player scoring a hundred and taking ten wickets in a game, and still only the third to achieve this feat for the county. He also scored a century (155) and took 5 wickets in an innings a year later, also at Northampton, and George Pope, 101 and 6-43, at Chesterfield in 1947, and more recently, in 2008, Jon Clare, 129 not out and 7-74, at Northampton, also matched his effort.
In the 21st century, Derbyshire batsmen have made 24 centuries, with Madsen and Chesney Hughes leading the way with 3 each, and there have been 15 instances of bowlers taking 5 wickets in an innings, with the best being Jon Clare’s 7-74 in 2008.
David Wainwright’s 6-33 on his debut against Northamptonshire at Derby in 2012, are the best debut figures recorded against that county for Derbyshire, and the second best ever for Derbyshire, bettered only by Dove Gregory’s 6-9 versus Lancashire, in Derbyshire’s first ever game in May 1871.
The best innings bowling figures are Cliff Gladwin’s 8-26 at Rushden in 1947, while Sam Cadman, Mike Hendrick, Tommy Mitchell (twice) and Leslie Townsend also took eight in an innings.
Travis Birt took 5 catches in the Northamptonshire first innings at Northampton in 2007, to equal the Derbyshire record for most catches in an innings, and Harry Storer and Leslie Townsend both took hat-tricks against them, at Queen’s Park, Chesterfield in 1922, and at Northampton in 1931, respectively.
Four-day cricket is back! Derbyshire host their final Specsavers County Championship match of the season against Gloucestershire from Monday 24 September. Buy your tickets in advance and save.
