Up where we belong? The Championship preview

There was a good piece in yesterday's Derby Telegraph by Mark Eklid, which added to my growing conviction that the good times are set to roll at the County Ground, especially in the longer, Championship form of the game.

Derbyshire's players all, unanimously, contributed to their Barbados trip. That's right. Yes, it sounded glamorous, it was probably fun and it was undoubtedly beneficial, yet the guys all dipped into their own pockets to contribute to the cost.

That might not make them the best team in the land, but it shows a unity of purpose that will stand them in good stead this coming season. You don't need to be too old to remember a Derbyshire dressing room with more factions than the Sugababes have had line ups and it is good to see the present squad pulling together.

I'll look at the one day campaign in due course, but over the last two years Derbyshire have proved a match for most in Division Two of the County Championship. We're not yet ruthless, but we're hard to beat and we'll battle. Last year we got into a number 0f potential winning positions yet rarely forced the result, something that was very frustrating for everyone.

So what will be different this year? A lot, actually.

For one, we'll have as good an opening pair as there is in Chris Rogers and Wayne Madsen - for the whole season. OK, Madsen may have a little second season-itis, but maybe he won't. Buck will be determined to close his Derbyshire career (Aussie recall notwithstanding) on a high and we should expect a thousand from each of these fine players.

Garry Park and Greg Smith should be thereabouts too. Park excelled last year, his first for the county, while Smith emerged as the player we've hoped for since he burst onto the scene. He will have been disappointed to miss his thousand, but for a bloke who also bowls spin and seam and fields brilliantly it was a fine return.

We've lost the mercurial Mr Hinds from the middle order, but with Dan Redfern likely to be joined by Paul Borrington I have high hopes that we will not lose any runs from that part of the order and will naturally benefit in the field. Both are fine talents with good techniques and Borrington's experience against the new ball will be handy when he gets in with the scoreboard reading 375-4 and the second one due...

Seriously, he will be good insurance against a collapse, while new wicket keeper Lee Goddard will, I'm sure, add around 500 runs from number seven. I really rate the lad and his record in Durham's second string is excellent. If he takes to the county game like Garry Park did, we will have few complaints. He is also an excellent gloveman and I think John Morris has made a very shrewd signing.


Memo to Durham - last year Park, this year Goddard. Watch out boys, we're coming for Di Venuto, if this year is the last for Rogers!

Of course, we will then have new Kolpak Robin Peterson at number eight and he is one of two men who could make the real difference in the Championship campaign. It is a long time since we had a match winning spinner, even one who you could rely on to bowl with control on a regular basis. Yes, Ant Botha had his fans and was a decent player, but if you remember Botha running through sides you're a better man than I. He kept it tight, but he rarely matched the opposition twirlers at Northampton or Cardiff, something I would expect Peterson to do.

With Peterson at one end and a combination of Madsen (an underrated spinner), Smith and Redfern at the other we should get wickets with slow bowling this year. Of course, I'm assuming that Graham Wagg might not bowl as much spin and that Jake Needham will struggle to get into the Championship side on a regular basis.


Graham Wagg, the Derbyshire Sobers. If he stays fit he could be another key man with his penetrative, lively left arm swing. We all know he is another brilliant fielder and he has the ability to score many more runs than he does with his dazzling stroke play. How many chances he will get is questionable, as I cannot see how he will bat higher than nine, but Wagg is an all rounder of talent. Worse cricketers have played for England and I think he will benefit from the arrival of the boy from Nottingham.

For me, Wagg and Mark Footitt could make for an excellent new ball attack. Both left arm, a less common angle, with one relying on swing and the other, make no bones about it, on the nippy side of lively. Three years ago when Footitt burst onto the scene he was thought of as an England bowler in waiting. Pace, bounce and movement is a potent mixture and if he can stay fit and get a little help from our new direction tracks at Derby, we could just have signed the strike bowler we needed.

I see the other position in the Championship being a straight fight between Steffan Jones and Tim Groenewald, assuming everyone is fit. It would be silly to expect the Jones boy to play every match at his age and with coaching responsibilities. He may be of greater use in one day games, where, with Ian Hunter, he could use his experience to good effect. Timmy G had a fine first season last year, took wickets, bowled accurately, fielded well and scored handy runs. You can't ask for more and with that success under his belt, he should have plenty of confidence.

Maybe Tom Lungley can force his way in with a last hurrah as he owes us a season, but I would reckon Derbyshire's first choice side to be pretty close to this in the County Championship:

Rogers
Madsen
Park
Smith
Redfern
Borrington
Goddard
Peterson
Wagg
Groenewald/Jones
Footitt

Such a side would give us long batting, brilliant fielders and EIGHT bowlers. For the first time in a long time it is well balanced and the advent of a quality spinner and a quick could make us genuine promotion contenders.

I know there are good sides out there and see Surrey and Sussex as our biggest rivals. Yet I look at the various squads and genuinely feel that we just need a good start. If we then get the rub of the green with the weather and umpiring decisions, we should be pushing for promotion with that side.

I can't wait for it to start.