DERBYSHIRE COUNTY CRICKET CLUB

'Derbyshire County Cricket Club' is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Derbyshire. Its limited overs team is called the 'Derbyshire Phantoms'.
The club is based at the County Cricket Ground, previously known as the Racecourse Ground, in the city of Derby. In 2006, for the first time in eight years, County Cricket returned to Queen's Park, Chesterfield with a County Championship game against Worcester and a One Day League game against Surrey. Other first-class cricket grounds used in the past have included Buxton, Heanor, Ilkeston, Abbeydale Park in Sheffield and Burton upon Trent, which is actually in Staffordshire. One-day contests have been played at Darley Dale and Knypersley (also in Staffordshire).
In 2007 the club is in Division Two of both the County Championship and the One Day League. The captain is Simon Katich and the coach is former Zimbabwe captain David Houghton. The overseas players are the Australians Simon Katich and Travis Birt.

Contents

Honours

Records

Earliest cricket

Origin of club

Club history

2007 squad

Derbyshire Facts and Feats

Notes

References

External links

Honours

★ 'County Championships (1) - '1936

★ 'FP Trophies'^[1]' (1) - '1981

★ 'National Leagues'^[2]' (1) - '1990

★ 'Benson & Hedges Cups (1) - '1993

Records

'Most first-class runs for Derbyshire' Qualification - 15000 runs [1] Player Runs Kim Barnett 23854 Denis Smith 20516 Derek Morgan 17843 Leslie Townsend 17667 Stan Worthington 17000 Arnold Hamer 15277

'Most first-class wickets for Derbyshire' Qualification - 1000 wickets [2] Player Wickets Les Jackson 1670 Cliff Gladwin 1536 Billy Bestwick 1452 Tommy Mitchell 1417 Derek Morgan 1216 Edwin Smith 1209 Bill Copson 1033

Earliest cricket

Cricket may not have reached Derbyshire until the 18th century. The earliest reference to cricket in the county is a match in September 1757 between Wirksworth and Sheffield Cricket Club at Brampton Moor, near Chesterfield.

Origin of club

The formation of Derbyshire CCC took place on 4 November 1870 at a meeting in the Guildhall, Derby.
Derbyshire CCC played its initial first-class match ''versus'' Lancashire CCC at Old Trafford Cricket Ground on 26 & 27 May 1871 and joined the (then unofficial) County Championship.

Club history

Although the club had some good results in its early seasons, it struggled for the most part and before the 1888 season, following a run of disastrous results, Derbyshire was demoted from first-class status. Derbyshire recovered first-class status in 1894 and rejoined the County Championship in 1895.
Although the county then had a quite strong team due to the bowling of George Davidson, Joseph Hulme and George Porter and the batting of William Storer, William Chatterton and Bagshaw, within three years they had hit rock-bottom, going through 1897 without a win due to their best bowlers losing their powers.
From this point up to 1925, Derbyshire were perennially among the weakest counties, losing every single match in 1920. From 1926, the nucleus of a good team emerged around some doughty batting from Denis Smith, Stan Worthington and George Pope, and the bowling of Pope, his brother Alf, Tom Mitchell and Bill Copson took the team to their one and so far only Championship victory in 1936. They won 13 of their 28 matches outright and 5 on first innings. Worthington, Townsend, Smith and Alderman all passed 1,000 runs and Copson and Mitchell took over 100 wickets, with Alf Pope taking 94. Charlie Elliott, who later became a test umpire and selector, was another member of this team.
There have been more downs than ups in post-war years. Though runs came regularly from Arnold Hamer, the West Indian Laurie Johnson and captain Donald Carr, the batting remained the weak point right up to the beginning of covered pitches in the 1980s. However, a series of fast bowlers served England as well as Derbyshire. The list began with Copson and continued with Cliff Gladwin, Les Jackson, Harold Rhodes, Alan Ward, Mike Hendrick and, most recently Devon Malcolm.

2007 squad

The Derbyshire squad for the 2007 season consists of (this section could change as players are released or signed, international players in 'bold'):

Name	Nat	Batting Style	Bowling Style	Notes
Batsmen
Travis Birt		LHB
Hassan Adnan		RHB	OS
'Simon Katich' (c)		LHB	SLC
Steve Stubbings		LHB	OS
Chris R. Taylor		RHB	RFM
Phil Weston		LHB	LM
All-rounders
Ant Botha		LHB	SLA
Greg Smith		RHB	RMF	Kolpak player
Graham Wagg		RHB	LM
Wayne White		RHB	RMF
Wicket-keepers
Lee Goddard		RHB
James Pipe		RHB
Bowlers
Simon Cusden		RHB	RMF
Kevin Dean		LHB	LM
Ian Hunter		RHB	RMF
Tom Lungley		LHB	RM
Jake Needham		RHB	OS
Chris Paget		RHB	OS
'Boyd Rankin'		LHB	RMF

Derbyshire Facts and Feats

★ Derbyshire recorded their highest ever score, 801 for eight declared, against Somerset at Taunton in 2007. Their score beat their previous highest ever score, of 707 for 7 declared also against Somerset also at Taunton in 2005. Simon Katich scored 221, Ian Harvey 153, Ant Botha 101 and James Pipe 106. Derbyshire broke the record despite losing Phil Weston and Chris Taylor to Andy Caddick in the first over without a run on the board.

Notes

1. Formerly known as the Gillette Cup (1963-1980), NatWest Trophy (1981-2000) and C&G Trophy (2001-2006)
2. Formerly known as the Sunday League (1969-1998)

References

★ ''Cricket: History of its Growth and Development'' by Rowland Bowen

★ ''Hamlyn A-Z of Cricket Records'' by Peter Wynne-Thomas

★ ''Playfair Cricket Annual''

★ ''Scores & Biographies'' by Arthur Haygarth

★ ''Wisden Cricketers Almanack'' (annual)

External links

★ Official Derbyshire County Cricket Club website

★ cricinfo's Derbyshire section