A week today, weather permitting, Derbyshire will step onto the County Ground for the first time in 2025.  It will be a friendly game against Oxford UCCE, but an opportunity to see our side in the flesh once more. There was mixed news from overseas this week. Caleb Jewell returned to the Tasmania side and made 45 and 100*  in their final fixture against New South Wales. It was a decent attack too, but most interesting was the fact that he batted at four, rather than his usual opening role. Whether that is an option for Derbyshire I don't know, but it is certainly food for thought ..read more

The news that Wayne Madsen and Harry Moore have been picked for this year's version of The Hundred was no surprise on the one hand, more so on the other. With Pat Brown and Nye Donald already selected, Derbyshire will be without four of their first choice players for the One-Day Cup, which has led to considerable wailing and gnashing of teeth on social media.  Yet supporters will need to accept - as I have - that the game has changed and the 50-over competition, whether we like it or not, is a development one. It is a chance for peripheral players to stake a claim, for young ones to mak ..read more

Today's announcement of the signing of 18-year old Afghan 'mystery spinner' Allah Ghazanfar for the Vitality Blast has probably taken the cricket world by surprise. Yet that in no way reflects on the ability of a young man who is very highly thought of in the game, after a stellar start to his career. Certainly the Mumbai Indians thought highly enough of him to pay 4.8 crore (around £450K) for his services for this year's IPL, before a back injury ruled him out of the competition, as it did the Champions Trophy. Based on his performances in 2024, it is likely that his appearance in those t ..read more

I was on North Derbyshire radio last night, talking to Matt Rhodes about the new contract for Mickey Arthur, David Lloyd stepping down from the captaincy and Wayne Madsen taking it on. We also discussed the coming season and the recent passing of former Derbyshire player Peter Eyre. You can listen to it here. I am on just before the fifteen minute mark Hope you enjoy it!  ..read more

The change that makes the most sense from a Derbyshire perspective has been quickly announced, as I fully expected. Wayne Madsen has once again been appointed red ball captain, a post he held for four summers until 2015. He was the last Derbyshire skipper to hold aloft a trophy, when we won division two in that memorable summer of 2012. Since then, a number of Derbyshire skippers have sought his counsel and he has been involved in most on field decisions. At 41 he is in his twilight years as a player, yet there were no signs last year of any dimming of the light. He is still the first na ..read more

It has come as no surprise that there will be a change in the club captaincy at Derbyshire for the coming season.  David Lloyd, who has stepped down from the role, looked to be struggling at the end of last summer, when the challenges of establishing himself at a new club, some distance from his home and with injuries to contend with, became too much.  His struggles with his mental health have been well documented. He is a good cricketer, better than last season showed him to be. There were glimpses of form, with some delightful stroke play at times, but they came in cameos and he ..read more

It didn't take too long to find out that my opinion of a new contract for Mickey Arthur was at odds with many other supporters... Plenty of comments on here and around social media confirmed that people were surprised and angry. I fully understand that and, as someone who felt at the end of last season that this year would be the last for Mickey Arthur, I would like to explain why my position has shifted.  It is patently clear that results have not gone as we had hoped. Mickey's approach is by nature to be bullish and upbeat and he has not always helped himself with some of his comments ..read more

At least for me, today's announcement of a one-year contract extension for Mickey Arthur comes as no surprise. Anyone who watched the excellent series of videos by Tom Poynton on the club site will know that the Head of Cricket is highly regarded, irrespective of results so far not going as we may have wanted. His first year at the club was a success, managing to get more from the players than had previously been the case. The last two have been disappointing, but there are signs throughout the club that the 'process' is starting to bear fruit.  The short-termism highlighted in the ..read more

I was so sorry tonight to hear the news of the passing of Peter Eyre, another of my childhood favourites. Coming so soon after the death of his good friend Brian Jackson, it has been a sad time for the High Peak and for Derbyshire cricket. Peter was perhaps the very definition of a journeyman professional. He didn't always reach the heights and there were times when he was not an automatic choice in the Derbyshire eleven. Yet when opportunity came, he seldom let them down. He played for the county between 1959 and 1972 and took 418 wickets in that time. His bustling fast medium pace alwa ..read more

I read the results of a poll a few weeks back, which asked 'cricket fans' to name their greatest ever England side.  I am not a fan of such things, because generally the only people who can bother to respond tend to be younger and often with less awareness of older players. I mean no disrespect in saying this, but I suppose you can only comment on what you know.  A couple of years ago I saw a poll that asked who was Derby County's best ever striker and saw several say Chris Martin. Now he was a decent striker for a couple of seasons, but I can think of ten better without breaking s ..read more