On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me

Twelve wins in the Pro 40,
Eleven fit players,
Ten always firing
Nine tons for Rogers
Eight's our new keeper
Seven score a thousand
Sixes a-plenty
Five crucial wins
Four play brilliant
Three quite good
Two average
And runs and wickets for RP....

I don't see many of you wassailing that one around the houses this year, but hey, it's Christmas and it's as good as it gets. Minus six up here just now and snowing again. There's been more slips than Waggy normally has with the new ball.

Anyway, there's merit in the song and my Christmas wish is that Derbyshire translate their undoubted ability into more wins in 2010. If you look through the team there is potential and flowering talent throughout. Success in the season ahead isn't just down to that, of course.

We'll need our share of luck. We'll need to hold our catches, hope a few get dropped from our guys and hold our nerve when the going gets tough. We also need good result pitches from the newly aligned tracks and decent weather when the game comes to a crucial stage.

All or most of the players need to kick on again. If Buck again bats brilliantly and Wayne Madsen doesn't suffer second season blues we'll get good starts. Then it is down to the middle order showing they have learned from last season's progress and can become reliable county (or better) cricketers. We'll find out if Robin Peterson is the answer to our problems too. If he kicks into form, especially with the ball, we should see better results as a consequence. While I'd like to see him score 750 runs and take 50 Championship wickets, that is down to whether other batsmen fail and other bowlers don't take them. If the top four bat as they did in 2009, Peterson will have few opportunities for big innings at seven or eight.

In the field, we need Steffan Jones to get everyone fit and keep them that way. If he does, there will be few teams fancy playing us and we should do well, especially in the Championship, where I expect another promotion challenge. Improved one day form will be a bonus and bigger crowds will add to John Morris' playing pot for future years.

In short, may we play good, purposeful cricket and enjoy a season of continued improvement and better results.

Thanks to everyone for turning 19,000 hits this time last year to three times that figure as 2009 draws to a close. It shows that interest in Derbyshire cricket is high and I'm grateful to all of you for your support.

Have a great holiday and I'll be posting at some point between Christmas and the New Year.

Cheers!