Last night, basking in the euphoria of Derbyshire's promotion, like many of you I surfed the web to see what the media were saying about us. Remarkably, the media WERE talking about us. Success does that for a team...
I came across the BBC site and my eye caught a heading reading "pre-season prospects" by their local sports correspondents. I'd seen it before, but I wanted to remind myself of what Charles Collins of Radio Derby had written, which was as follows:
"Season prospects:
The club will be hoping for an improvement on another disappointing
season in 2011 when they changed head coaches and lost experienced
skipper Luke Sutton. They will hope to challenge for promotion in the
County Championship or do well in the CB40. They've also only once
reached the T20 quarter-finals, so a big step forward there is a target.
Realistically, however, there hasn't been a lot of squad strengthening,
so expect Derbyshire to be pretty much 'as you were'.
One to watch:
All-rounder
Chesney Hughes
continues to improve as he matures, and is now 21 years old. This
could be a breakout season for big Chesney (cue a line of bigger clubs
looking to take him off Derbyshire's hands)"
More than anything, it set me wondering what exactly I had written back in March when I did my pre-season championship preview. For your convenience you can find it here . Maybe I didn't get enough right to warrant taking a booth on Blackpool sea front and calling myself Gypsy Peakulengro, but I think I did OK, certainly enough to have warranted heading down the bookies for a flutter.
Mind you, the chances of that are marginally less than of my crossing the line in next year's Grand National as the winning horse...
We,ve done it and it,s a great feeling. Today could be the icing on a very tasty cake. Congratulations to the players and to Karl Krikken,they throughly deserve it.
ReplyDeleteI didn,t realise we had done it until later in the evening. I knew there was bad light at Cardiff and I thought they had finished for the day. A real bonus at the end of a good days cricket.
We made mistakes,we made it difficult at times and looked like we were going to press the self destruct button once too often,but thank goodness it came right in the end.
There are problems ahead and decisions to make,but that,s for later. For now,let us bask in the knowledge we have achieved something special and today we can go one step further. It,s a great feeling and one I have waited a long time for. Well done Derbyshire.
Congratulations to Palladino on his award. He got my vote,though I have to say Groenewald ran him very close indeed.
I also think Madsen deserves a special mention. He has made mistakes and he would probably be the first to admit it,but for a first season captain he has much to be proud about. He has also been prepared to sacrifice himself for the sake of the team and bat in various positions,not always to his own advantage. I believe he will be an even better captain next season and will hopefully slot into the middle order and stay there.
I feel sorry for Kent but maybe next season will be their year. As much as I hate to say it,Yorkshire have been irresistable in recent weeks and timed their run in to perfection.
I will be having a few celebratory beers tonight. Lets make it a championship night.
Having watched Kent implode against lowly Glamorgan for the past few days, I'd like to offer my congratulations to Derbyshire on gaining promotion to Division I for the 2013 season. I hope you can succeed in pipping Yorks to the post for the Champions pennant.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry I won't be travelling to Derby for next years fixtures as I thoroughly enjoyed my few days at the RacecourseGround earlier this season and the warmth of the welcome I and other Kent supporters received. Perhaps in 2014!
Good Luck!
Thanks for your generous wishes, Martin.
ReplyDeleteAll the best for 2013 - the Kent team has come on remarkably well after being almost rebuilt from scratch.
Peakfan - gambling. Yes, fair dues, a decent shout along with a few others of us who fancied our overall chances back in pre-season. However, I am glad you didn't place any heavy wagers on the openers.
MASTERVILLAIN
Thanks Martin. I,ve enjoyed reading your comments and as I said earlier,I hope your boys make it next season. You,ve given it a good shot but ran out of steam at the wrong time. I don,t suppose there is any chance we could have Kevin Northeast is there?. I promise we will look after him.
ReplyDeleteKevin Northeast???. I mean Sam,of course. Senior moment...
ReplyDeletesome loser on FF is suggesting we target Jack Brooks, whose contract is apparently up .If that's the level of our incoming playing resource, we may as well accept immediate relegation now. After this super achievement, real , proven talent is required and I'm sure KK will come up with it.
ReplyDeletejack brooks is a decent player, but a couple of batsmen are more important.
ReplyDeleteI would kindly suggest we start cutting out this 'loser' reference - we all know where that started. This us and them farce between this blog and FF is both pathetic and childish by some contributers to BOTH services. I would hope any sensible contributor would see them as complementary sites.
ReplyDeletePlease get a grip Anon from 14 Spet - whoever you are.
MASTERVILLAIN
I don't disagree with many of the comments in Peakfan's post and the comments that followed, but many of them are based on needing to replace someone who’s played a part this year, rather than needing to add depth and options in the squad as a whole. You don’t need to believe that Borrington or Turner needs to be replaced to recognise that we need to have more opening batting and bowling options than we’ve had this year. At any point in the last 8 matches, such was the inconsistency of our batting with only Poynton and (latterly) Khawaja averaging over 30, you could have made a case at any stage for replacing one or other of our top six if there was someone scoring serious runs in the second team.
ReplyDeleteKrikken’s decision to stick with the same six might reflect his trust in them as individuals to deliver when it was needed, but it was certainly made easier by the fact than no-one else in the squad was demanding to play – I won’t argue about Chesney Hughes again here!
Another reason for strengthening is that we have been extraordinarily lucky this year with injuries - I can only recall Clare, Whiteley and Poynton missing games because of injury - and there won't be many seasons that we will be so lucky, either in the batting or bowling.
A third reason is that we haven't got a single player with a track record in Division 1. We can be confident that some will make the adjustment, and optimistic that others will. Given the struggle to get out of Division 2, however, we have to be realistic that some won’t.
I agree with Peakfan that there isn't a huge gap between the top of Division 2 and the majority of Division 1, and he’s absolutely right to point out that each of these players will be a year older and wiser. They will also be much more confident and assertive after their experiences during this season. but each of our matches next year will be against stronger teams than Yorkshire, Kent and Hampshire have been this year. Given our results against them this year, there is still a big step up needed to survive, and we need to have more options to replace those that can’t make it on a consistent basis.
I don’t think we should be recruiting with a view to replacing particular individuals, but should be looking to recruit talented cricketers (whether it’s been realised yet or not) who will strengthen the overall squad and create real competition for places.