Gloucestershire v Derbyshire Metro Bank Cup preview

There are two ways that Derbyshire can approach the Metro Bank Cup, that starts tomorrow.

In the absence of any second team cricket this month, they could offer opportunity to some of the promising younger players on the staff, like Potts, Harrison and Wagstaff. Or they could put out the strongest team from the players that are left, after The Hundred and injury has somewhat ravaged the squad.

I suspect that we will go with the latter, given that we won the Second Eleven T20 in fielding the club captain. Doing well in this competition is important, when looking back on the season as a whole.

The arrival of David Lloyd is welcome, especially so if he is able to bowl a few overs of medium pace. Derbyshire could then go with a side reminiscent of India when they won the World Cup in 1983, a combination of spin and medium pace with Sam Conners as our Kapil Dev..

I would like to see Lloyd at three, allowing Haider Ali to move to four. If he is fit to bowl a few overs, it would be possible to accommodate both Wood and Lamb, who themselves can offer spin options. By my calculation that would offer seven or eight bowlers and a very long batting lineup.

Reece

Came

Lloyd

Ali

Wood

Lamb

Guest

Dal

McKiernan

Thomson/Watt

Conners

Also in thirteen: Nick Potts

Gloucestershire are another county not overly affected by losses to that 'other' competition and they have recruited the Irish international Harry Tector to bolster their ranks.

Their 14-man squad:

Akhtar, Bracey, Charlesworth, Dent, Gohar, van Meekeren, Phillips, Singh Dale, Shaw, Smith, Price, Taylor, Tector, Wells

It should make for an excellent game on one of the most scenic grounds, Cheltenham, on the county circuit. I would like to think that Derbyshire have a good chance, both in the game and the competition overall.

Remember, the top sides from each group qualify for the semi-final, and second plays third from the other group to decide their opponents.

Can Derbyshire make at least top three? 

I think so, but it is down to them to prove me correct.

Talks available in the coming months

Following the death of my father, I have been spending more time travelling from our home to support Mum, who still lives at home on the Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire border.

That is likely to continue over the next few months and I have now managed to secure a flexi retirement with my work, so I will only be working two days a week.

I plan to retire at the end of September 2024 and at that point I will also retire from public speaking, having done many talks for cricket clubs and societies over the past few years.

Being down there more often affords opportunity to fit a few extra talks in over the Winter and Spring months, and I am happy to consider any offers that may be out there for negotiable fees. 

If you are involved in a cricket club or society who might be interested in stories of Derbyshire cricket, blogging, meeting heroes, being mistaken for Elton John and being offered players for Derbyshire by overseas agents, please get in touch.

peakfan36@yahoo.co.uk is the email address and I could notionally be available Thursday to Sunday to do a talk for you, other days possible with plenty of notice 

But once I retire from work, that's it. When it's gone, it's gone, as the old advert used to say. 

Hopefully I can catch up with a few blog regulars!

Book Review: Yorkshire Grit - The Life of Ray Illingworth by Mark Peel

I was always likely to enjoy a book on Ray Illingworth.

He never played for Derbyshire, of course, but he was an established part of the county cricket landscape when I first started watching the game in 1967. Indeed, when I bowled my early off spin, it was from a run up modelled on his, even if the results didn't bear comparison! 

In the opinion of many he was the brains of the great Yorkshire side that dominated that decade, the right-hand man to Brian Close, whose attention could sometimes wander, a solid middle order bat and an outstanding off spin bowler.

When Yorkshire astonishingly declined to give him the contract he wanted, he opted to move to Leicestershire, where he led them to the county championship and the highest levels the club has ever seen. Then he went back to Yorkshire, at a time when the club was in chaos and when he was 46, first as manager and then as captain, as the Boycott years caused strife on an unprecedented scale, even in that county.

He was England captain through a very successful period and won the Ashes in Australia in 1970-71. He is still regarded as one of the great captains and I will always remember him being one of the England successes in the unofficial but wonderfully entertaining tour by the Rest of the World in 1970, when the tour, originally scheduled by South Africa fell by the wayside.

He was a regular voice on the airwaves and his sage comments on the cricket commentary always added to the understanding and enjoyment of the viewer.

He later, of course, became Chairman of Selectors for the England national side. His manner could be brusque and abrupt, which didn't go down well with players of the time. Certainly the famous fall out with Devon Malcolm could have been avoided with a little more tact and consideration.

The book makes for a terrific read, given its subject and that the author is the prolific and consistent Mark Peel. It is the latest in a long line from Pitch Publishing, whose contribution to the genre is worthy of special note.

I would have liked a little more detail on the 1950s Yorkshire side - and there cannot be a county with greater discord over its history - but this is a minor point in an excellent read.

What was really nice to see was that Illingworth, after scaling the heights of the game as a player, captain, analyst and administrator was prepared to return to his roots and work as groundsman for his beloved Farsley club for many years. Few cricketers can have given back to the game as he did.

His knowledge of the game was such that I expect time spent in his company would have been memorable and result in your knowledge heightened by the end of it. His manner may not have been to all tastes, but his contribution to the game cannot be denied.

This is definitely one I would recommend.

Yorkshire Grit: The Ray Illingworth Story is written by Mark Peel and published by Pitch Publishing

David Lloyd joins for Metro Bank Cup

Excellent news from the Incora County Ground today, with David Lloyd joining Derbyshire for the duration of the Metro Bank Cup.

I wondered if that might happen, when I saw the Glamorgan squad announced for yesterday's friendly against Herefordshire and he wasn't in it.

It obviously offers considerable quality and depth to our batting, although I am unsure whether we will get the full experience. He only bowled a few overs of gentle off spin, rather than his usual medium pace, in the recently completed Championship match. It suggested that he wasn't yet fit to do so, which may well be the case.

He will certainly take his place in the side and the  question now is who he will replace from the likely first choice side that I named on Saturday.

It could be one of the seamers, or perhaps Matt Lamb, if he isn't fit to play. 

Either way it strengthens the side considerably. 

I am looking forward to seeing him.

Lincolnshire friendly win

Harry Came continued his current golden run of form with an excellent century for Derbyshire today in a 6 wicket win over Lincolnshire.

He finished on an unbeaten 125 from 118 balls and saw Derbyshire through a tricky patch in which they lost three wickets in five overs in pursuit of a winning total of 251.

At 118-4 the game was in the balance, but captain Brooke Guest joined him in an unbroken stand of 133 in nineteen overs to ease the county to a comfortable win with seven overs to spare. Guest ended unbeaten on a run a ball 59, after earlier taking five catches in the home side's innings. Haider Ali contributed 38, earlier in the innings, though Tom Wood and Matt Lamb failed to get going.

Earlier four Lincolnshire batters managed to do so, including Jordan Cook, formerly on the staff at Nottinghamshire, who made an unbeaten 70 from 58 deliveries.

Sam Conners was the pick of the bowlers with 3-42, while Mattie McKiernan took 2-50 and Nick Potts 2-53.

It was a good workout for the side, who were again without Suranga Lakmal.

Metro Bank 50-over preview

Looking at the available players, I don't have any real concerns about Derbyshire scoring runs in the forthcoming Metro Bank 50-over competition.

The biggest issue would appear to be putting out an eleven that features seam bowling. With Chappell and Scrimshaw away and Aitchison out for the season, we only have Potts, Conners and Lakmal. I am not even sure we have the latter, so there is always the chance of a loan, I guess, if anyone out there has players available. 

With counties down to the bare bones, more likely is a move for someone from Scotland or Ireland, or a pro plucked from local leagues. I think it unlikely in our case, but expect something close to the following side:

Reece

Came

Guest

Ali

Lamb

Wood

Dal

Thomson/Watt

Potts

Conners

Lakmal

I'm hoping that the sight of Matt Lamb doing fielding drills during the Glamorgan game was indicative of his being fit to play, at least for now. McKiernan is another option and Wagstaff could come into the frame with any batting injuries.

The skipper? For me, it's between Dal, Reece and Guest. The former slight favourite, as I haven't thought of Luis looking for such a role. Guest is a good option, but when already keeping and batting three, captaincy would be a big ask on top of that.

There are counties far worse affected than Derbyshire with losses - those in our group and the missing players (at the last count!) are as follows:

Warwickshire – 9

Chris Woakes (Birmingham Phoenix), Moeen Ali (Birmingham Phoenix), Chris Benjamin (Birmingham Phoenix), Dan Mousley (Birmingham Phoenix), Henry Brookes (Birmingham Phoenix), Jacob Bethell (Birmingham Phoenix), Danny Briggs (Oval Invincibles), Alex Davies (Southern Brave), Sam Hain (Trent Rockets) 

Somerset – 9

Will Smeed (Birmingham Phoenix), Tom Lammonby (Manchester Originals), Tom Banton (Northern Superchargers), Craig Overton (Southern Brave), Tom Kohler-Cadmore (Trent Rockets), Lewis Gregory (Trent Rockets), Tom Abell (Welsh Fire), Roelof van der Merwe (Welsh Fire), Ben Green (Welsh Fire)

Durham – 8

Mark Wood (London Spirit), Ben Stokes (Northern Superchargers), Brydon Carse (Northern Superchargers), Matthew Potts (Northern Superchargers), Bas De Leede (Northern Superchargers), Ollie Robinson (Northern Superchargers), Nathan Sowter (Oval Invincibles), Ben Raine (Manchester Originals)

Derbyshire – 4

Wayne Madsen (Manchester Originals), Zak Chappell (Oval Invincibles), Leus du Plooy (Southern Brave), George Scrimshaw (Welsh Fire)

Sussex – 3

Ravi Bopara (London Spirit), Tymal Mills (Southern Brave), George Garton (Southern Brave) 

Worcestershire – 3

Josh Tongue (Manchester Originals), Mitchell Stanley (Manchester Originals), Adam Hose (Northern Superchargers)

Glamorgan – 2

Dan Douthwaite (Welsh Fire), Chris Cooke (Welsh Fire)

Gloucestershire – 2

Miles Hammond (Birmingham Phoenix), David Payne (Welsh Fire)

Northamptonshire – 2

Saif Zaib (Northern Superchargers), David Willey (Welsh Fire)

So Warwickshire, Somerset and Durham are effectively playing their second team. The surprise for me is that Glamorgan are only missing two players to Welsh Fire. I would have thought Kiran Carlson and Billy Root certain to be picked up, fine players both.

Anyway, let the show commence! The other competition will go its own sweet way with no interest from yours truly. I did note that Zaman Khan is a late pick for Manchester Originals, but he isn't available to us now anyway.

In closing what is a lengthy piece, I wanted to acknowledge the quick and indeed shrewd move for Mohammad Amir by Mickey Arthur. Especially when one considers that next year's T20 World Cup will be run at the same time as the Vitality Blast. 

By definition, the best players in the world will not be available, unless they have already retired from international cricket, like Amir. I would assume that Mark Watt will therefore be unavailable to Derbyshire next summer for that competition, held in the United States and West Indies.

That might focus recruitment for that competition on a potential fringe, or out of consideration spinner from overseas, as well as being a consideration for player releases.

Not easy, this cricket management malarkey!

Have a good weekend. Let's hope for a stream for the Lincolnshire game tomorrow, even a camera at one end...

Postscript: Guest has now been announced as captain, with Dal as vice-captain.

No complaints there, they seemed the most likely (only?) candidates and Brooke must feel he can handle the additional responsibilities.

Two good people in charge, so we are all set.

Derbyshire v Glamorgan day 4

Glamorgan 521-8

Derbyshire 318 and 360-0 (Reece 201*, Came 141*)

Match drawn

Time for a standing ovation tonight, as Luis Reece and Harry Came broke the Derbyshire first wicket record partnership of 333, which had previously been held by Reece and Billy Godleman.

By the time the captains shook hands, they had extended their partnership to an unbroken 360, with Reece having reached a career-best double century and Came also registering a career-highest score 

Only Chris Rogers has scored more runs in a match for Derbyshire than Reece did here, with both batters amply illustrating why they were offered and thankfully signed two year contracts this week.

Regardless of the flat nature of the pitch, this was a monumental effort by the two of them. You still have to make runs on a track that is very much in your favour and I have seen plenty of Derbyshire sides over the years who might have made a mess of the final day here.

They batted for four sessions and showed tremendous powers of concentration and fitness, as well as considerable style.

I wrote last night that Glamorgan's best chance of a win was to set Derbyshire a total and bowl us out as we went for that. Realistically, I think the odds would have been in Derbyshire's favour in that situation, because it was such a good wicket for batting, throughout.

One thing that today appeared to confirm is that David Lloyd, when he appears in the county colours next year, will need to revert to the middle order, from whence he came. Much of his career has been spent batting at  five or six and he only moved up the order in Glamorgan's hour of need. He has done well in that role, but the resident openers could not have done more to convince. Mickey Arthur that they are the answer to at least one of the problems ahead of next season.

They should be in prime form for the fifty over friendly on Sunday against Lincolnshire, and for the competition that follows it.

Sincere congratulations are due to both of them and I am delighted to report that pieces of the future. Derbyshire jigsaw have been firmly put into place.

I will be back tomorrow with a preview of the one-day cup, which for Derbyshire starts on Tuesday at Cheltenham.

Derbyshire v Glamorgan day 3

Glamorgan 521-8 declared

Derbyshire 318 (Reece 131, Came 65, du Plooy 41, Van Der Gugten 3-94, Gorvin 2-46, McIlroy 2-48)

and 78-0 (Reece 53*, Came 25*)

Derbyshire trail by 125 runs

If David Lloyd was watching the Derbyshire batting today with a view to where he might fit in next year, he will have come to one conclusion.

The opening berths have solid incumbents, but there are plenty of options in the middle order.

There was no real logic to the Derbyshire first innings capitulation today. To reach 165 with no wickets down, but then be bowled out for 318 was massively disappointing.

Luis Reece made an excellent century, full of the strokes that have become his trademark when in best form, while Harry Came lent dogged but crucial support. The two of them looked to have set Derbyshire up to comfortably match the first innings total of Glamorgan. Yet forty overs later they were all out.

I don't look at the visiting attack in fear. There are some good bowlers and Gorvin impressed me today by attacking the stumps and getting the ball to swing. They put the ball in the right areas and simply waited for the Derbyshire batters to make mistakes. Which they did, frequently.

It was anaemic fare. A succession of players dangling their bats out, or making rash attempts at sweeping, topped off with a farcical run out of the last man, who appeared to be dreaming when called for a single. They were not in some cases, to be perfectly honest, the innings of players who might be playing for their futures.

Reece and Came set a standard the others failed to match. Luis was back to his best, which you can always tell by his foot movement, while Harry is my kind of opener - play straight, take no risks but put away the bad ball. He doesn't get fazed by not scoring for a while and looks a proper player.

I stand by my assertion but there is very little in the pitch, which was emphasised by Reece and Came batting with minimal alarms - again - to the close. Yet the visitors could still win this game tomorrow if Derbyshire bat as poorly as they largely did today. 

Truth be told, I thought their hopes of winning might have been better served by batting again and setting Derbyshire a target on the last day. The bowlers will have been tired after 105 overs in the field and I thought it asked a lot of them to go out and do it all again.

Maybe it will ultimately be successful, but I wouldn't have made that decision.

In closing tonight, congratulations to Leus du Plooy, who passed the thousand run mark  for the season in the course of his innings, doing so in the second least number of innings in the club's history. Only Shan Masood, last year, has done it quicker.

Hopefully he doesn't have to add too many more to save this game tomorrow.

Derbyshire v Glamorgan day 2

Glamorgan 521-8 Dec

Derbyshire 95-0 (Reece 52*, Came 37*)

Derbyshire trail by 426 runs

Any concerns that Derbyshire might fall apart in reply to a 500 and counting Glamorgan total were allayed this afternoon, by a professional, common sense reply by Harry Came and Luis Reece.

They had added an unbroken 95 for the first wicket, before rain ruled out any further play for the day. They are still 426 runs behind the Welsh county, but I find it hard to believe that they could bowl us out twice on this wicket.

They bowled with far greater discipline than we managed and there were less opportunities for the Derbyshire batters to let the ball go. Equally, there were very few deliveries that moved or discomforted the two openers and it is hard to think that will change markedly tomorrow.

Both offered sound technique and common sense, eschewing most risks. The biggest scare was an inside edge to fine leg by Reece, which narrowly missed the stumps a second time as he came back for a second run.

All of the Glamorgan batters made double figures, including number ten Swepson, who is either the best in that position in the country or a strong indicator of a blameless track.

The forecasts that I have seen suggest there won't be much cricket tomorrow morning, but they may get onto the pitch in the afternoon. Either way, it is hard to see anything other than a draw in this fixture and it will not live long in the memory.

Derbyshire v Glamorgan day one

Glamorgan 408-6 (Ingram 136, ul-Hassan 69, Carlson 57, Root 52 Reece 2-64, Chappell 2-70)

v Derbyshire

When I look back on what is now 56 years of watching Derbyshire play cricket, the highlight of that period was definitely the years when Kim Barnett was captain.

It wasn't the time that I saw as much cricket, because I was in Scotland at that stage and only able to go to games occasionally. I didn't drive, so I got the train down to my parents and once there Dad and I would go to a few days, especially when I was single and with no attachments and commitments to worry about.

The thing was, you were guaranteed a really good day at the cricket. Regardless of whether we did well or not, there was a great battle between bat and ball on sporting wickets. If you were good enough to score runs, you could make them. If you were a good bowler, there was something there for you. Opponents hated coming to Derby, because they knew our battery of seamers and quick bowlers would make life very difficult and it would be very much to the detriment of their average. 

They moaned about it, but if they won the toss and put Derbyshire in, their arguments didn't really hold up when Kim Barnett, Chris Adams or John Morris had scored almost a century or more before lunch. We backed our players to be better than the opposition and often they delivered.

Fast forward forty years and I am finding it very dull. The cricket remains of a good standard, but it is all fine and dandy if you want to watch a runfest. You just know that in the ordinary run of things there will be two large first innings totals, a bit of rain and no chance to generate a positive result. Which will likely happen in the current game and is why we haven't won a four-day game at Derby since 2019. It is all well and good for 20- over cricket, when people want to see fours and sixes, but not remotely enjoyable for the longer format.

Here's a question for you, asked of me by a friend, earlier today. Do you think the current points system is conducive to entertaining cricket? What we find happening is that each side bats for maximum bonus points, in the hope they can ultimately win the game (16 points) take another five for their batting after making 450 and then bowl out the other side for the final three and a maximum of 24 from the game.

Would it not be more entertaining if the spoils for winning the game were 24 points, regardless of how many runs you made in the first innings? The best games of cricket are where 200 plays 200 through the game and the best side comes out on top. So if you were bowled out for 249 but went on to win the game, you reaped the reward of the maximum points, supporters enjoyed a fine game and groundstaff were encouraged to produce result pitches.

If team A makes 450 plus, team B sets its stall out to do the same and suddenly you are in the evening session of day three with not a lot happening. 

Yet looking around the country, most clubs have wickets that are more sporting. Sixteen wickets went down today at Southampton, twenty-two at Edgbaston, both of them international grounds.

So why can't we? I think it is a justifiable question for the forthcoming members forum. This isn't a go at Neil Godrich, a very good groundsman, but a question for the head of cricket who is presumably requesting anodyne tracks for batting on.

Today made for hard viewing. So much so that I went out to clean two cars and then took the dogs for a walk, because what was happening was patently clear after the first hour of the day. If Mohammad Amir was watching the ball do very little all day from home, he would realise that he is in for some very hard work, unless something is done.

David Lloyd looked like the sort of player we will enjoy watching, albeit in a brief display, but then Colin Ingram and Zain-ul-Hassan batted very well, the former making a classy hundred, the latter a more circumspect maiden half century.

When both were eventually dismissed, Root and Carlson pushed the score along and Glamorgan went comfortably past 400 before the end of the day's play.

Zak Chappell was the pick of the bowlers, but there was little joy to be had. Some of it was pretty awful and I felt sorry for Brooke Guest, who had 25 byes against his name at the end of the day, with little that he could do about most of them.

There was something rather unedifying about watching George Scrimshaw, on the first day of a championship game, bowling short with no slips and three men on the leg side boundary.

It spoke volumes for the kind of day and the kind of wicket we have, yet again.

While your opinion may be different if you are watching the action from Wales, I suspect that most people will have forgotten today's action very quickly.

Which is all rather sad really.

Postscript: hopefully Anuj Dal is OK after an awkward fall in his delivery stride near the end of the day. I am not sure if it is his knee or his ankle, but as the likely captain for the fifty over competition, we can scarce afford to lose him.

Mohammad Amir signs for first half of 2024!

Well, the news was true - at least to some extent.

Mohammad Amir has been announced as one of Derbyshire's overseas players for next season. He will play the first half of the summer, including red ball and T20 cricket.

It is quite a coup. He is a very special cricketer, combining pace and swing to good effect, often devastating if you are at the other end with a bat in your hand. At 31 he should be in his prime, hasn't been flogged into the ground and is certainly a player very much in demand, for T20 cricket especially, around the globe.

I have no interest in his earlier indiscretions. Most people make mistakes in their younger days and Amir paid for his. He is now a married man with a family and from all the reports I have read appears to want to settle down in this country.

So it could still be that the player continues to play for us thereafter as a local, as a number of media outlets were reporting over the weekend. On the face of it, this move allows time for him to qualify, while retaining his services for all cricket, potentially in the medium term.

That is for another time, but one assumes that his signing means that Zaman Khan will not be returning. This would allow the focus to move to another area of need, perhaps a spin bowling all rounder. Although Amir and Zaman opening the bowling would indeed be a worthy spectacle...

I expect there to be announcements of more comings and goings in the coming weeks. On the face of it, if we assume David Lloyd is a replacement for Billy Godleman and Pat Brown for (I suspect) George Scrimshaw, Amir is a partial replacement for Suranga Lakmal and there is then the money for du Plooy and any other departures nominally in the budget, as well as anything that can be raised from off-field activities.

The loss of du Plooy is a big one, probably one that Mickey Arthur was neither wanting nor expecting. But he said on Radio Derby last night that a 'top batter' was pretty much there

Change is needed and it is important that, as supporters, we sit back, watch what happens and then get behind the Head of Cricket and his squad.

Welcome to Derbyshire, Mohammad. We all know there is nothing like the sight of a world class fast bowler running in.

In this fella we have secured one.

Here he is in action - hopefully we support him better in the field!

Derbyshire Glamorgan preview

Mickey Arthur has named a 13 man squad for the game against Glamorgan that starts at the Incora County Ground tomorrow.

Tom Wood comes into the squad in place of Wayne Madsen and looks likely to take his place in the side. The final place would appear to be between George Scrimshaw and Nick Potts and I suspect the former may get the nod this time. That would leave the following side:

Came, Reece, Guest, Wood, du Plooy, Ali, Dal, Thomson, Chappell, Conners, Scrimshaw (Wagstaff, Potts also in squad)

Our visitors are one of five sides in the mix for promotion and will be keen to get a result in some way from this game. 

They will be captained by David Lloyd, who, in the light of today's news on Leus du Plooy, I expect will be the Derbyshire captain next year.

Their squad:

Lloyd, Carlson, Root, Harris, Gorvin, Northeast, Morris, Swepson, ul Hassan, McIlroy, Ingram, Cooke, Van Der Gugten, Lewis

Although they have had a solid season, only one win so far highlights the issue they have had in bowling sides out. They have a good batting side, like Derbyshire, but with rain forecast on most if not all of the days, it is hard to see past another draw here.

Especially on Derby wickets that have hardly been conducive to batting collapses...

As always, I would appreciate your thoughts!

Madsen watching

I had hoped to pop through to Edinburgh today, to see Wayne Madsen v Mark Watt. A chat with my boss regarding my return to work put the kybosh on that, but I watched the stream afterwards.

Wayne batted very well and held a blinding catch yesterday, as his Italian side beat Jersey. It was a typically breezy fifty, ended only by an excellent catch on the boundary, while he also held a catch that a man twenty years younger would have enjoyed and celebrated.

Today was a different story, against the Scottish team which was very impressive. He was out third ball, playing too soon and hitting to mid on, after dropping a catch during the early part of the Scots innings that he would hold the other 99 times in a hundred.

It illustrated again what a great leveller cricket is. Scotland steamrollered the Italy side that looked decent on paper. Opening bat Ollie Hairs made a memorable and bucolic century, that belied his previous average of 13 in the format, but the style of the innings, with 98% of his shots pulled or slogged through midwicket, suggested it might just be one of those days when it all went right.

Brandon McMullen again looked a class act, scoring 96 and showing himself as a team player when caught out on the boundary in the penultimate over. Some might have nudged a single to retain strike and almost guarantee it in the last over, but it didn't detract from a very fine innings of 96 from 50 balls

Hairs will rightly get the headlines, but the manner of the runs didn't suggest he would do that against a higher level of opposition. McMullen, with reverse sweeps, powerful drives and rapier like cuts, looked the talent that he undoubtedly is.

It does need to be said, however, that aside from Grant Stewart of Kent, the Italian bowling was very ordinary. His four overs for 22 were excellent 8n a total of 245-2, akin to the figures of George Scrimshaw at Taunton in the carnage of last season.

For Scotland there will be tougher matches, for sure.  Hopefully Wayne gets a chance to shine later in the tournament.

du Plooy departure confirmed

With it effectively being announced on the commentary during the last county championship match, it seemed inevitable that the departure of Leus du Plooy to Middlesex would be confirmed sometime this week.

No real surprise then, when it was announced this morning.

There is always sadness with the departure of a player who has served the county well. Leus has done that and more.

Nor can anyone blame him for going. A 5-year deal is impossible to turn down in a short career and he will no doubt have been handsomely rewarded for his signature.

Nor can Derbyshire be blamed. They will have made the best offer possible to retain a player who is capable of winning matches. Yet the reality is that his chances of playing international cricket have increased by moving to the 'home of cricket'. He will be seen and his efforts commented on far more, even if it seems likely at this stage that he has swapped one second division side for another.

I wish him well. He has given good value to the club and its supporters since he arrived in 2019. His ability to take the best of bowlers apart will be remembered and still enjoyed, even if from a distance 

It does challenge the assertion of Mickey Arthur that Derbyshire will be the 'county of choice', but perhaps a greater gauge of the accuracy of that statement will be in how the county go about replacing him. Money will always talk, and some have more of it than others.

For many supporters, including myself, the club is all. The players, regardless of the sport, are only transient, albeit of varying longevity.

But they are remembered. Many of us will recall plenty of times when Leus looked a million dollars and one of the best batters ever to wear the county colours.

Which I think he has been. While there were times when his footwork, early in the innings, could be ponderous, there were plenty of others when the boundary looked way too small and the fielders about half a dozen short.

I wish him the very best in his future endeavours.

Random weekend thoughts

I don't think it will be long now before we hear of departures from Derbyshire. 

With players coming in, there have to be others going out and I would expect news to break this week of the departure of Leus du Plooy. While we may hang on in some parts to lingering hopes he will stay, it seems like the Middlesex move is a done deal. 

I think his replacement is already at the club. Matt Lamb has had a frustrating season with back issues and I understand surgery is possible for the close season. If he can get back to fitness he is a very good, classy and powerful middle order bat. It is unrealistic to expect the weight of runs made by Leus this year, but as a solid bat, useful leg spinner and safe pair of hands he has much to offer next season and beyond.

It wouldn't surprise me if Worcestershire made a big play for George Scrimshaw, who came up through their academy system. Having lost three seam bowlers so far, they will have money to spend and there won't be many with the potential that big George has. He may not want to play all formats, of course and may not want to return to a club that released him after a run of injuries, but it would surprise me if he was at the club next year. Not least because when Pat Brown signed the other seamers at the club were mentioned in the press release, but not George.

Reading too much into it? We will see.

As for developmental Derbyshire, I was pleased to read in the week that both Yousaf bin Naeem and Harry Moore have impressed in the ECB Super Fours. 

Yousaf, from the video clips, seems a diminutive but organised player who times the ball very well. He is only just 17, so the first eleven is likely beyond him right now, but he is one to watch, for sure. 

So too is Harry, whose father was an outstanding bowler for many years in local cricket. Tall and slim, he is still only 16 but seems to have something, not least control of the ball, as he seems to return economical figures in whatever class of cricket he plays.

Next, after giving it thought I wouldn't be too upset if Haider Ali was to return next year.

Let's be honest, he was thrown in at the deep end by being asked to open, but since dropping to his normal middle order role has looked more at home. He has almost 800 runs in all cricket with plenty to add, having done better in the four-day game than Azhar Ali at Worcestershire, a very experienced player. He also did better than Shan Masood in the T20, so they aren't bad benchmarks.

He is 22, playing in England for the first time and has conducted himself impeccably. He has held some blinding catches and fielded very well. Yes, he has given his wicket away a few times, but how many perfectly crafted 22 year olds are there in any career?

There are plenty of worse options out there. I still feel a spin bowling all rounder would be my first pick, because a top seven of Lloyd, Came, Guest, Madsen, Lamb, Reece and Dal looks pretty solid, as well as containing four bowlers.

That's why the Samit Patel story makes some sense, but I would be surprised if it was much more than an agent playing games.

He is out of contract at Nottinghamshire and they will be considering options. What they would want least is for him to ship up down the road and do well, so his agent may be playing canny and trying for another, improved deal at the club he has served so well.

Which could rebound, of course...

But there is certainly plenty to occupy our thoughts right now!

Breaking news from The Telegraph

'The former Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Amir is set to join Derbyshire as a local player next season.

Amir, 31, retired from international cricket in 2020 and is seeking British citizenship – his wife is a British citizen – ahead of signing a deal with Derbyshire.

Amir earned infamy in 2010 as an 18-year-old when he was one of two bowlers (the other being the more experienced Mohammad Asif) to deliberately bowl no-balls during a Test tour of England.

That led to Amir being banned for five years by the International Cricket Council and serving half of a six-month custodial sentence in young offenders institutes in Feltham and Dorset. Asif and the captain Salman Butt were also jailed and handed bans by the ICC.

Amir returned to international cricket in 2016, but retired during the pandemic. Since, he has been a travelling freelancer, playing in Pakistan, England, Bangladesh and the Caribbean. At times, he was a world-class player in all three formats, picking up 259 wickets for Pakistan, including 119 in Tests.

Amir has experience of playing county cricket, mainly for Essex, but also Gloucestershire. He also played the first season of the Hundred for Lord’s-based London Spirit. If he becomes a British citizen, he would be able to play in the Hundred as a local, too.

Derbyshire have an unusual link with Pakistan as their head coach, Mickey Arthur, is also director of cricket for Pakistan, mainly operating remotely in the English season. South African Arthur has been full-time head coach of four countries, including Pakistan when Amir was a key member of their attack been 2016 and 2019.

Arthur is looking to rebuild Derbyshire, who regularly find themselves in the lower reaches of the County Championship. He has signed Pat Brown from Worcestershire and is also thought to be keen on picking up the former England all-rounder Samit Patel from Nottinghamshire. However, Derbyshire could lose their captain Leus du Plooy, whose suitors include Middlesex.'

All very interesting! Amir made mistakes as a young man, but has paid for them and is a very good cricketer. 

Were he to play as a local, that is a serious statement of intent and would allow overseas recruitment too.

Patel is interesting too. He probably has a couple of good years in him and, although no athlete, is a very good cricketer who could and should play more than T20, which is all he gets at Trent Bridge.

Interesting. Very interesting!

But let's see what develops

Thanks to Dean for alerting me to this story.

.

Derbyshire v Durham day 4

There isn't much to say about today, other than that the expected result happened.

I suspect that even without the rain the result would have been the same. Any realistic hope of Durham taking the win points on this surface would have been in chasing a total on the final afternoon.

On a pitch which didn't offer a great deal to bowlers, bowling Derbyshire out was ambitious, as a plan.

You would have to say that Derbyshire acquitted themselves well against the team that is top of the table. There didn't appear that much between the sides and from that alone, considering the players that were missing, Derbyshire can take a lot of heart.

Yet the search for that first win goes on.

Derbyshire v. Durham day 3

Derbyshire 443 and 89-0 (Reece 54*, Came 27*)

Durham 575 (Carse 80, Potts 64, Conners 5-115)

Derbyshire trail by 43 runs

A five wicket haul for Sam Conners and an unbeaten half century for Luis Reece were the highlights of the third day at Derby today.

Yet the game is destined for what I can only call a bore draw, with rain forecast for much of tomorrow.

Play was halted for a while while a mysterious object was removed from the wicket. It turned out to be an old eyelet from the covers, but to be quite honest, an unexploded World War II bomb wouldn't have made much of a difference.

The wickets at Derby are simply too good, certainly for batters. Four day cricket is all well and good, but these tracks do no one any favours, certainly not a home side trying to get their first four day win at the ground since 2019. I don't think it would make a great deal of difference if we signed prime time Michael Holding and Les Jackson over the winter, unless something is done to make the battle between bat and ball more even.

If winning four-day cricket is not our raison d'etre and we just want to be a team that is hard to beat, that's fine. But realistically, we will not mount a challenge to be promoted in this format unless the wickets are more conducive to results being achieved. As a spectacle it is pretty dull.

I switched over in the afternoon and watched Scotland v Jersey on BBC iPlayer. Jersey fielded brilliantly and had the Scots in a spot of bother, before an unbeaten 31 from Mark Watt took them to 149-7.

He then opened with a wicket maiden en route to figures of 4-21 as the home side won without too many alarms.

I bet he had more fun bowling at The Grange than he would have had at Derby today...

Derbyshire v. Durham day 2

Derbyshire 443 (Guest 197, Borthwick 4-25, Raine 3-80)

Durham 364-4 (Lees 171, Bedingham 138, Conners 3-62)

Durham trail by 79 runs

The same old issue came back to bite Derbyshire at the Incora County Ground today. Having posted a respectable first innings score, our own attack was unable to find the requisite line and length against two very good opposition batters, who punished them severely.

Alex Lees has been a perennial thorn in Derbyshire sides since his Yorkshire days and today added another century to his excellent record against us. Meanwhile, at the other end David Bedingham highlighted his credentials with a beautiful innings. He really is a player of great class, eminently capable of playing international cricket and no doubt coveted by South African selectors.

The two of them put Derbyshire's attack to the sword, with only Sam Conners coming out of the day with his reputation intact. He took three of the four wickets to fall and bowled well. Indeed, when he took two early it looked like being a day of upset, but that partnership of 305 between the two Durham batters changed the game.

Both had gone before the close, to give Derbyshire something ahead of tomorrow, but the dangerous Pretorius was looking good at the close, with the visitors only 79 runs behind.

Well as they played, they were given too many loose deliveries and too much width. Contrast that with Ben Raine, who was again in the wickets because he makes batters play. It is simple, old-fashioned but unsurprisingly effective.

Earlier, Brooke Guest took his innings to 197, the second highest ever by a Derbyshire wicket keeper, before holing out on the boundary. It was a magnificent knock and the morning session was also enlivened by tonkage of high quality by Sam Conners. 

I don't understand the modern fixation with bowling short at tailenders, especially one who plays the pull and hook well, like Conners. 

Indeed, one over from Carse consisted of six short balls to he and Guest, which must have raised a critical brow, Roger Moore-style, from George Scrimshaw, after the events at Hove.

I still feel that for Derbyshire to really push on next year we need to get Derby wickets more like Chesterfield ones. They are very good for batting and I hope that Pat Brown was given assurances that they will be different when he comes next season. Well as Derbyshire batted, they could easily be 150 to 200 behind on first innings by this time tomorrow, then battling against defeat.

Speaking of next season, I watched David Lloyd play a lovely innings for Glamorgan today, which confirmed that he will be a fine asset to us and a big loss for the Welsh county.

I look forward to him batting in similar style in our colours.

Derbyshire v. Durham day one

Derbyshire 317-6 (Guest 145*, Madsen 62, Ali 38, Borthwick 2-12, Raine 2-51, Potts 2-57)

v Durham

A magnificent, unbeaten, career best century by Brooke Guest steered Derbyshire to a position slightly in the ascendancy at the end of the first day at Derby.

The ball did something for the bowlers all day, with movement off the pitch for seam and spin alike. Ben Raine especially was a handful and if I could import any non-international county player into this Derbyshire side, he would likely be in the mix. He is a very good, accurate and probing bowler, worth his weight in gold to Durham.

It was hard going for the openers, as Potts also bowled well early. Luis Reece never looked comfortable, but looking ahead to next year I see him as an all rounder down the order. Harry Came was not at his most fluent, but the value of occupying the crease can never be underestimated in this form of the game. Much as Paul Borrington went under the radar when we won this division in 2012, seeing the shine off the ball and putting overs into the legs of the bowlers, so Harry did here. 

He went before lunch, but could do little about the ball that bowled him, an absolute peach by Potts. Madsen came in and could easily have been dismissed 3 or 4 times himself before the interval, but survived.

After lunch it was a different story. He batted well, with trademark strokes, but the day was primarily about Guest, who went to a second successive century with a sweep. There were strokes all around the wicket and he really is a player to enjoy when in this kind of form. His cover driving today was a joy to behold.

The running was good too and Derbyshire were completely on top when Ali, after playing with restraint and considerable class, had a brain freeze, walked out of his crease and was stumped. It was the second time this season that he has been dismissed in such a fashion, once being unfortunate, twice being careless, at best.

Then du Plooy hit a poor ball from Borthwick straight to cover and the game was even. I felt sorry for Parkinson at this point, who had bowled pretty well without success, yet saw the part time legspin of his captain take two wickets that were barely deserved. Borthwick's elevated arm after every delivery suggests he has bowled a grenade, rather than cricket ball, but he did a job for his side on this occasion.

Dal helped to steer the score towards calmer waters, before he lost his off bail to another fine delivery, this time by Raine. Yet Thomson batted with good common sense until the close, when Guest was one blow from 150.

The Derbyshire wicket keeper is a very special cricketer. Despite a slow start to the season with the bat, he now averages 40 and is a massively important player in this side.

Today, not for the first time, I don't know what we would have done without him. Only Bill Storer, with twelve, has made more centuries as wicket keeper for Derbyshire. Brooke has seven and will likely forge onwards to top that list in the years ahead.

All in all it was a very good, enjoyable day's cricket. Hopefully we can add more runs tomorrow, then our bowlers can follow up with Raine-like discipline in due course.