Nottinghamshire v Derbyshire RLODC

Nottinghamshire 340-7 (Wessels 114, Read 59 not, Thakor 3-78)

Derbyshire 275 (Slater 51, Critchley 43, Hosein 41, Gurney 3-47)

Nottinghamshire won by 65 runs

Local cricket fans had a good day at Welbeck today, with 600 runs scored and good entertainment enjoyed by all.

Realistically, the result was as one might expect, as a team full of international experience overcame a young Derbyshire side. For us to compete, one of our internationals had to deliver a big innings and sadly, both Hamish Rutherford and Neil Broom went for 20s, which has sadly become a season average.

The omission of Chesney Hughes was a pre-game talking point and whether he may have done better than the struggling Broom is a moot point, but the decision was made and there's no  point wondering at this juncture.

Derbyshire's main contributors were youngsters, who all showed a spirit that was impressive and bodes well for the future. Matt Critchley had a good game with bat and ball and has made major one-day strides this summer, while Harvey Hosein showed that he will, given time, be a very good all-round player for us. Meanwhile Ben Slater led off the innings with an array of shots that suggested a one-day role may become a regular occurrence in the near future. Ben can graft away in the four-day game, but with two centuries and a fifty in his last three List A games, he seems to have got his head around the one-day stuff quite nicely now.

Nottinghamshire's win was largely down to the late assault by Chris Read and Steve Mullaney. How they will eventually replace Read is a moot point, as he turned what looked like a sub-300 score into a very competitive one. A hundred runs from the last ten overs took it to nose bleed territory, this after Derbyshire had come back well in the middle overs. Rikki Wessels sizzling century helped them recover from the loss of two wickets to Shiv Thakor and such an innings had to be played at the top of our innings for us to get close.

Despite the best efforts of Slater, no one else in the top order got going and it was left to the two teenagers to give it their best shot.

Critchley had earlier been the most economical of the bowlers, even on a small ground. While four-day wickets will take him a while to get to grips with, he has done an astonishing one-day job this summer and can be proud of his progress.

So while we are off the top of the group, we control our own destiny. The Northamptonshire game, against a side just below us in the table, is a biggie, but we also play Lancashire and Leicestershire, the bottom two in the group.

A favourable finish, but most of us have seen Derbyshire stumble against sides that should be beaten.

Two wins from three will do it and a repeat of the recent win against Lancashire, on Wednesday, will send us into next weekend in fine fettle.

One final point...has there ever been a bigger weekend, finals excepted, in our history? Durham in the T20 on Friday, Northamptonshire on Sunday in the RLODC, then Leicestershire in the same competition on Monday.

Keep them calm and keep them focused John.

If they produce their best, they can do this.