They had me worried there...

Had a quick look at the club site today

"Maynard back at Queens Park" said the headline and I broke out in a cold sweat...

Matthew Maynard? Surely we weren't signing the former Glamorgan batsman on as the batsman we have all been anticipating?

Thankfully, the answer was no and he was just a guest of the Cricket Society at Chesterfield.

Strange as it seems, we've done dafter things at Derbyshire. Some will recall the signing of Clive Inman on a short contract after he left Leicestershire, a team he served well for years.

An apposite word, as I remember reading the newspaper headline "Derbyshire sign Inman" and thinking that John Inman, of "Are You Being Served" fame, had changed career...

I'd never heard of Clive at that point (hey, I was young) but I could visualise the skipper asking who fancied opening and Inman skipping gaily down the dressing room saying "I'm free..."

Truth be told, Clive in his Derbyshire appearances was only marginally more effective than John would have been, and less entertaining. Our rest home for the elderly then went on to offer accommodation to an assortment of lags in varying levels of fitness. Fred Rumsey, Fred Trueman, Ron Headley, Phil Sharpe...to be fair, some gave decent service, but it sent out strange signals and they were very short-sighted signings.

Nottinghamshire will be hoping for good value from Ally Brown and if he matches the deeds of Mark Ealham they'll have no complaints. They don't seem short of batting at Trent Bridge though and one wonders what the younger batsman are thinking after that one. The same could be said if we, or anyone else signed Stuart Law, or Lance Klusener. As a huge fan of pre-war cricket and players, I know that many players went on until nearer 50 than 40, but that is impossible today. The amount of cricket and the requirement to be a whippet in the field legislates against it.

So no Maynard at Derby - but we keep our eyes fixed on the County Ground and hope that news will be forthcoming of an additional batsman for 2009.