Time for that reality check Mr Happy...

I thought I'd seen everything until today.

If you read the Derby Telegraph online you'll know what I mean. The club's resident grumbler bemoaning the "very poor start" made by the county.

Maybe I've been in a parallel universe since the middle of April, but all things considered I think we're doing pretty well. The only thing missing is a good first innings total in four-day games, then we'll be cooking with gas.

OK, we may have lost against Gloucestershire and we probably would have done so against Glamorgan, but who knows? Maybe we wouldn't, and we've won two of our FP Trophy games and lost from a strong position against Yorkshire.

Do people REALLY, REALLY think we've become world-beaters overnight? Maybe if we'd pick up Ponting and Tendulkar as Kolpaks I may have had a flutter on success this season, but we didn't. We did pick up players better, in the main, than those they replaced. Birt has been replaced by Rikki Clarke, Sadler has replaced Weston, Doshi is in for Botha and Langeveldt in for...er... Simon Cusden. Hmmm.. I think that's progress. I'd agree that Telo is still to show his talents, but we've Wavell Hinds coming in and we've discovered a potential star in Jon Claire. We have four (count 'em) good all-rounders in Clarke, Wagg, Smith and Claire, five when Wavell arrives. Tom Lungley has carried on where he left off last season and Langeveldt could be the bowler of the season if he stays fit.

But we're not Bradman's 1948 Invincibles. There'll be games when the batting goes horribly wrong - we're Derbyshire, that's what we do. There'll be matches when we blow a run chase, or when we bowl loosely, but we're not the only side that does, or will do that. At this stage of the season, there's no stand-out side to me, and we are no better, but certainly no worse, than most of the others.

I am confident in one thing - that we have a team at the top, Messrs Sears, Amott and Morris, who can make Derbyshire a force to be reckoned with. Let's be honest, we don't have a glorious and honour-laden past. We had a fine side in the 1930's because of an exceptional clutch of players and a fair side in the 1950's because of Gladwin and Jackson. In the 1970's we were competitive (no more) under Eddie Barlow and under Kim Barnett managed a Sunday League and a Lords Final win. That's it, in 138 years and for a lot of the rest of the time we were rubbing rags for all and sundry. I've watched it since the late '60's and at times it has been painful. There were days when watching Bob Taylor take throw-ins was as good as it got.

So competitive will do nicely lads. For now.