Don't get me wrong, I love Scotland and the fact that I live in a quiet village, surrounded by fields yet within five minutes of a motorway network to most places you would care to go. Having said that, Wales isn't on the doorstep...
So we head to the splendours of Colwyn Bay, for the first time since 1966. It was in that game that Edwin Smith took his 800th county wicket for Derbyshire and Derek Morgan scored reached one thousand runs for the season. He also took seven wickets in the first innings, but we still lost...
Thankfully both Derek and Edwin are still with us and their talents wouldn't have gone amiss in this game. A squad of thirteen has been announced, which is:
Godleman, Rutherford, C Hughes, Madsen, Broom, Slater, Thakor, Hemmings, Critchley, Hosein, Palladino, Davis, Cotton
I couldn't call a final eleven, if I am honest, though Rob Hemmings would appear the most likely to miss out. After his excellent century yesterday, Ben Slater would be most unlucky to do so, with the other person dependent on what the wicket looks like tomorrow.
They face a Glamorgan side who have had a similar season to us - disappointing in four-day cricket but good in the one-day competitions. They have the injured Chris Cooke and Dean Cosker missing, while Tim van der Gugten and Colin Ingram are rested after one-day heroics in recent weeks. Graham Wagg has been in sparkling form for them and will again enjoy playing against his former county.
Their squad:
Mark Wallace, Nick Selman, Will Bragg, Jacques Rudolph (capt.), Aneurin Donald, David Lloyd, Graham Wagg, Craig Meschede, Andrew Salter, Owen Morgan, Michael Hogan, Jack Murphy.
It should make for an enjoyable festival week and would appear to be blessed with a good weather forecast, which wasn't Chesterfield's lot this year.
I think Derbyshire have the firepower to win this one and hope that they mark the change in format with an encouraging performance.
I reckon Slater needs to open the batting with Rutherford at three.
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