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Derbyshire County Cricket Club
One-day Name:	Derbyshire Phantoms
Coach:	John Morris
Captain:	Rikki Clarke
Overseas Player:	Mahela Jayawardene
Founded:	1870
Home Ground:	County Cricket Ground
Capacity:	9500
First-class debut:	Lancashire
	- 1871
	- Old Trafford
Championship Wins:	1
National League Wins:	1
FP Trophy Wins:	1
Twenty20 Cup Wins:	0
Official Website:	DerbyshireCCC

Derbyshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Derbyshire. Its limited overs team is called the Derbyshire Phantoms.

The club is based at the County Cricket Ground, previously known as the Racecourse Ground, in the city of Derby. In 2006, for the first time in eight years, County Cricket returned to Queen's Park, Chesterfield with a County Championship game against Worcester and a One Day League game against Surrey. Other first-class cricket grounds used in the past have included Buxton, Heanor, Ilkeston, Abbeydale Park in Sheffield and Burton upon Trent, which is actually in Staffordshire. One-day contests have been played at Darley Dale and Knypersley (also in Staffordshire).

In 2008 the club will play in Division Two of both the County Championship and the One Day League. The captain is Rikki Clarke and the coach is former England international John Morris.

Contents 1 Honours 2 Records 3 Earliest cricket 4 Origin of club 5 Club history 6 2008 squad 7 Derbyshire Facts and Feats 8 References 9 External sources 10 Further reading

• County Championships (1) - 1936
• FP Trophies ^[1] (1) - 1981
• National Leagues ^[2] (1) - 1990
• Benson & Hedges Cups (1) - 1993

Most first-class runs for Derbyshire Qualification - 15000 runs [1] Player Runs Kim Barnett 23854 Denis Smith 20516 Derek Morgan 17842 Leslie Townsend 17667 Stan Worthington 17000 Arnold Hamer 15277

Most first-class wickets for Derbyshire Qualification - 1000 wickets [2] Player Wickets Les Jackson 1670 Cliff Gladwin 1536 Billy Bestwick 1452 Tommy Mitchell 1417 Derek Morgan 1216 Edwin Smith 1209 Bill Copson 1033

Cricket may not have reached Derbyshire until the 18th century. The earliest reference to cricket in the county is a match in September 1757 between Wirksworth and Sheffield Cricket Club at Brampton Moor, near Chesterfield.

The formation of Derbyshire CCC took place on 4 November 1870 at a meeting in the Guildhall, Derby.

Derbyshire CCC played its initial first-class match versus Lancashire CCC at Old Trafford Cricket Ground on 26 & 27 May 1871 and joined the (then unofficial) County Championship.

Although the club had some good results in its early seasons, it struggled for the most part and before the 1888 season, following a run of disastrous results, Derbyshire was demoted from first-class status. Derbyshire recovered first-class status in 1894 and rejoined the County Championship in 1895.

Although the county then had a quite strong team due to the bowling of George Davidson, Joseph Hulme and George Porter and the batting of William Storer, William Chatterton and Bagshaw, within three years they had hit rock-bottom, going through 1897 without a win due to their best bowlers losing their powers.

From this point up to 1925, Derbyshire were perennially among the weakest counties, losing every single match in 1920. From 1926, the nucleus of a good team emerged around some doughty batting from Denis Smith, Stan Worthington and George Pope, and the bowling of Pope, his brother Alf, Tom Mitchell and Bill Copson took the team to their one and so far only Championship victory in 1936. They won 13 of their 28 matches outright and 5 on first innings. Worthington, Townsend, Smith and Alderman all passed 1,000 runs and Copson and Mitchell took over 100 wickets, with Alf Pope taking 94. Charlie Elliott, who later became a test umpire and selector, was another member of this team.

There have been more downs than ups in post-war years. Though runs came regularly from Arnold Hamer, the West Indian Laurie Johnson and captain Donald Carr, the batting remained the weak point right up to the beginning of covered pitches in the 1980s. However, a series of fast bowlers served England as well as Derbyshire. The list began with Copson and continued with Cliff Gladwin, Les Jackson, Harold Rhodes, Alan Ward, Mike Hendrick and, most recently Devon Malcolm.

The Derbyshire squad for the 2008 season consists of (this section could change as players are released or signed, international players in bold):

Name	Nat	Batting Style	Bowling Style	Notes
Batsmen
Daniel Birch		LHB	RMF
Wavell Hinds		LHB	RM	Kolpak player
Mahela Jayawardene		RHB	RM	Overseas player for the first half of 2008
John Sadler		LHB	OS
Steve Stubbings		LHB	OS
Phil Weston		LHB	LM
All-rounders
Rikki Clarke (c)		RHB	RFM	Confirmed as new club captain during October 2007
Greg Smith		RHB	RM
Graham Wagg		RHB	LFM
Wayne White		RHB	RMF
Wicket-keepers
James Pipe		RHB
Bowlers
Jonathan Clare		RHB	RM	Signed 1 year contract for 2008 having played for the 2nd XI
Kevin Dean		LHB	LFM
Nayan Doshi		RHB	SLA
Ian Hunter		RHB	RMF
Tom Lungley		LHB	RM
Chris Paget		RHB	OS
Jake Needham		RHB	OS

Derbyshire recorded their highest ever score, 801 for eight declared, against Somerset at Taunton in 2007. Their score beat their previous highest ever score, of 707 for 7 declared also against Somerset also at Taunton in 2005. Simon Katich scored 221, Ian Harvey 153, Ant Botha 101 and James Pipe 106. Derbyshire broke the record despite losing Phil Weston and Chris Taylor to Andy Caddick in the first over without a run on the board.

• Official Derbyshire County Cricket Club website
• CricInfo's Derbyshire section

• H S Altham, A History of Cricket, Volume 1 (to 1914), George Allen & Unwin, 1962
• Derek Birley, A Social History of English Cricket, Aurum, 1999
• Rowland Bowen, Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1970
• Roy Webber, The Playfair Book of Cricket Records, Playfair Books, 1951

• Playfair Cricket Annual – various editions
• Wisden Cricketers Almanack – various editions

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