Cricket in the park

Brian Sanderson on the opening day of this week's tussle between Derbyshire and Yorkshire

It was dry—for a wonder!—when I got up this morning, so I set off immediately to watch Derbyshire against Yorkshire at Queen’s Park in Chesterfield. Opened in 1887 to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Jubilee, the ground hosted its first cricket match 130 years ago. Chesterfield is 49 miles south of Leeds, just off the M1, and took about an hour to reach by car, as there were roadworks around Sheffield. We arrived early enough for my companion to collect the autographs of some former Derbyshire players who were reminiscing about old times.

The home county won the toss, and for some reason decided to bat on a green wicket under dull clouds. The stewards thought it would rain at around four o’clock in the afternoon, but they were late by 3½ hours, and we forced back to the car to have our sandwiches in the dry. The players, too, took an early lunch. Derbyshire were then 45 for six, the Sri Lankan left-arm fast bowler Fernando having taken three wickets.

After lunch, the rain having abated, Alex Thompson took a stunning catch at third slip to give Fernando another wicket. He helped himself to one more, finishing with a brilliant five for thirty, as Derbyshire were bowled out for 76 in just 28 overs. Thompson managed four for 31. Derbyshire supporters were shaking their heads and ruing the toss.

By tea Yorkshire had erased the deficit for the loss of two wickets, with 46 overs remaining in the day. Then James Wharton came to the wicket. Born in Huddersfield 23 years ago, he had just played nine first class matches since April 2022. But today he came of age, reaching his maiden first-class hundred off only 101 balls, of which eighteen went for four and two for six. With the help of Jonathan Tattersall, he had put on 107 for the sixth wicket when bad light stopped play for the day.

This set up Yorkshire with a strong chance to win another match, but the weather forecast for the morrow was not very good. It has been a painfully wet summer.

Brian Sanderson is an ACS member. He serves on the Yorkshire Cricket Archives Committee. If you would like to contribute to this newsletter, please either respond to the email in which you received it, or leave a comment below.