Leicestershire v Derbyshire day 4

Had the weather stayed fair, there is no doubt in my mind that Derbyshire would have beaten Leicestershire by some distance and marched well clear at the top of the table. By the same token, ifs, maybes and supposition get you nowhere in life. In cricket, as in life, you have to take the rough with the smooth - there have, after all, been plenty of occasions when we have been saved by some judiciously timed rain showers.

Irrespective of that, tonight we sit over thirty points clear in the table and all fans of Derbyshire will be hoping there are no positive results for Yorkshire against Glamorgan tomorrow, or for Kent against Hampshire. Both games need more than a little cooperation to get even a contrived finish, with Kent's game a little further on.

Surely Hampshire, sitting just ten points behind Kent, won't offer them a gilt-edged opportunity to move further ahead of them? At 229-6 they don't yet have anything close to a target to set and I'd be surprised if they left them much less than 340, perhaps with the help of a couple of declarations, unless the game is again truncated.

As for the county of the white rose, they must have wilted a little under the incessant rain in Wales and, with the home side only 117-3 in their first innings even a contrived finish is some way distant. I would hope that Glamorgan, enduring an annus horribilis, might be wary of Yorkshire's batting strength and loathe to lose their sixth match in nine starts. Marcus North must be thinking he's playing some strange form of cricketing Monopoly, one in which he's swapped the Strand, Park Lane or Bond Street of Lancashire, Durham or Hampshire for the Old Kent Road....maybe he should have held on to the Mayfair of Derbyshire...

Anyway, three cheers for the news that The Mullet has landed! Rana Naved will make his debut for us on Sunday against his old county Sussex. I'm sure I'm not alone in being excited at the thought of seeing him in Derbyshire colours and this weekend I will preview our T20 campaign and tell you my first choice selection as the competition begins.

Halfway through the Championship and whatever happens tomorrow, Derbyshire will be clear at the top.

Enjoy it, people!