Midweek musings

A day off for old Peakfan today, as it is Mrs P's birthday. I'm not revealing the age, but, as she points out to me on such occasions, she's still a good few years younger than me..hopefully she's going to enjoy her day, which includes not a single cricket-related gift...

On to the cricket and I hope that you keep an eye on the club's Twitter account in the next couple of weeks, as a wide range of signed goodies are going to be made available through an auction. It is a similar idea to that arranged by Northamptonshire's Alex Wakely, in aid of Help for Heroes.

Wakely raised nearly £3,000 from his auction, which included his T20 medal, which went for an impressive £780. Derbyshire's auction is split between fund raising for the pre-season trip and their three chosen charities. With a range of signed shirts and bats, along with other cricket memorabilia available, it promises to do well and deserves to do so.

Star draw, of course, will be the auction on the day of the Player's Lunch on  March 5th, when the last remaining medal from the 2012 county championship win will be auctioned off and is sure to attract a number of bids.

Get yourselves over to Twitter in the coming days and support a laudable venture as much as you can.

On to other things and Sussex have just announced a loss of £630,000 for last season, which is worrying from all angles. They are perceived as a well run club, but that level of loss shows the challenges of the modern first-class game and they need to put robust measures in place to avoid a repeat. If that was an announcement made by Derbyshire, I would be very concerned.

Meanwhile Kent are close to announcing the signing of an overseas player for the summer, reportedly one who went unsold in the recent IPL auction, which narrows it down to a lot of names. The player concerned 'will be available for the whole season' but their accompanying comment of stringent financial controls suggests it may not be one of the game's bigger names. Sometimes that can work for you though, as Warwickshire have found with the excellent service from Jeetan Patel in recent summers.

Meanwhile, work goes on at the County Ground and it is only just over a month until the first game (albeit pre-season). I suspect that Derby in March may be marginally cooler than Dubai, but the pre-season preparation will doubtless serve our lads well, especially given the quality of opposition to be faced.

That's enough from me for now. Back to Mrs P and her day.

Now, where are those candles...and will 35 fit on the cake...?

Should be me earning some brownie points now!