Let it Be

It's Father's Day tomorrow. I only remembered that a week or so back, but thankfully Mrs P was on the case as always and had made a beautiful card for my Dad. She's probably done the same for me, too, so that the kids have got something nice for me - hopefully….

My son and I will actually be spending a good part of the day at Hampden Park, the home of Scottish football (or what passes for it) and will be enjoying Paul McCartney in concert, with Sharleen Spiteri (of Texas fame) as support act. It should be a great gig that prefaces my son's birthday on Monday and I'll be back quite late if rumours of a near-three hour show are correct.

It means I'll miss most of the Sunday game at Northampton, where Derbyshire come up against, not Macca, but Elton. Must be that kind of day, but Elton Chigumbura is the Steelbacks second overseas player for the competition, playing alongside Chaminda Vaas. It is an intriguing combination, with Vaas a fine bowler who still looked a class act in the IPL. I'm not so sure of their tactic of opening the batting with him, to be honest, but with Rob White and David Sales in the middle order we cannot afford to underestimate the opposition, both of them capable of scoring very quickly. Add Andrew Hall and Nick Boje to the side and there are some solid performers, but Chigumbura's novelty value could be the secret weapon.

How much our lads know about him I'm not sure, but he is a hard-hitting all rounder with a decent, if not spectacular record. I would like to think we will win this one, but it is hard to call Derbyshire in any form of the game.

On Monday the focus switches back to the County Ground and a game against the Worcestershire Royals. Having lost almost all of their big name players in the winter, the visitors have now lost Australian all rounder Steve Smith to the national side and Vikram Solanki to injury. Their hopes will lie with opener Phil Jaques and the fresh-off-the-plane Sanath Jayasuriya, who must now be in the status that is slightly older than "veteran". He has been an outstanding cricketer, but the recent World Cup suggested that time had caught up with him.

Let's just hope that he doesn't get his second wind on Monday. Given the various celebrations over the next couple of days, I may be playing catch up on Tuesday, but will do what I can, when I can.

See you soon.