Frizzell County Championship

Derbyshire versus Yorkshire

at The County Ground, Derby

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday
2, 3, 4 and 5 July 2025


Yorkshire have played 29 first-class matches at the County Ground, Derby - 28 in the County Championship and one non-Championship fixture in 1894.

Of the 28 Championship matches, played between 1877 and 2000, Yorkshire have won 16, lost 4 and 8 have been drawn.

From 1929 to 1981 all Derbyshire home matches versus Yorkshire were played at the Queen’s Park ground in Chesterfield. After a solitary match at Derby in 1982, it was back to Chesterfield until the final match there in 1995.

The first encounter at Derby, in 1877, was drawn but Derbyshire won the next two - in 1878 by 7 runs and in 1879 by an innings and 2 runs. Yorkshire had no answer to the left-arm fast bowling of William Mycroft who took 21 wickets for 117 in the two matches.

In 1880 John Thomas Brown Dumelow Platts did the hat-trick for Derbyshire - there have been two others, both for Yorkshire - by J T Brown, of Driffield, in 1896 and by Wilfred Rhodes in 1920. Platts made his first-class debut for MCC versus Nottinghamshire at Lord’s on 1870 and early in the second innings a ball from Platts hit the Nottinghamshire batsman, George Summers, a sickening blow on the side of the head. Summers died four days later.

Yorkshire won the 1886 match by 3 wickets, it would have been by a much greater margin had it not been for a fighting innings of 62 by Frank Sugg in Derbyshire’s second innings 156. Sugg, born in Ilkeston, played for three counties - Yorkshire in 1883, Derbyshire from 1884 to 1886 and finally Lancashire from 1887 to 1899. His brother, William, also played for Yorkshire and Derbyshire. They died within eight days of each other in May 1933.

In a high scoring drawn match in 1896 (1190 runs for 28 wickets) William Storer hit a century in each innings - 100 and 100*. This was only the second time this had occurred versus Yorkshire - the first was by W G Grace at Clifton in 1888.

Yorkshire’s highest score at Derby came in 1928 when Maurice Leyland (149), Herbert Sutcliffe (111), Arthur Mitchell (91) and Percy Holmes (67) were the main contributors to a total of 485 for 8 dec. Emmott Robinson, George Macaulay, Maurice Leyland and Wilfred Rhodes shared the wickets to give Yorkshire a win by an innings and 52 runs.

Derbyshire have twice totalled 473 - all out in 1982 and in 1997 when they declared with only 3 wickets down.

This was the match in which Kim Barnett and Tim Tweats added 417 for Derbyshire’s 2nd wicket. This fell only 30 runs short of the all-time record partnership for any wicket against Yorkshire - the 447 put on by Bobby Abel and Tom Hayward for Surrey’s 4th wicket at The Oval in 1899. Barnett scored 210* - within touching distance of the highest score for Derbyshire versus Yorkshire which remains the 219 of J D Eggar at Bradford in 1949. Tweats’s 189 was the highest score of his first-class career. And 417 is the all-time highest partnership for any Derbyshire wicket.

Yorkshire lost the match by 9 wickets, their first loss at the ground since 1905. Long in time but short in terms of matches - only nine, due to that huge gap between 1928 and 1982 and from then to 1997.
Yorkshire and Derbyshire have met in the County Championship 196 times. Yorkshire have won 100, lost 19 and 77 have been drawn. In addition three matches have been abandoned without a ball being bowled.

Highest totals:
By Yorkshire 662 at Chesterfield in 1898
By Derbyshire 491 at Bradford in 1949

Lowest totals:
By Yorkshire 44 at Chesterfield in 1948
By Derbyshire 20 at Sheffield in 1939

Highest individual scores:
For Yorkshire 300 by J T Brown at Chesterfield in 1898
For Derbyshire 219 by J D Eggar at Bradford in 1949

Best bowling in an innings:
For Yorkshire 10 for 47 by T F Smailes at Sheffield in 1939
For Derbyshire 9 for 27 by J J Hulme at Sheffield in 1894

Best bowling in a match:
For Yorkshire 14 for 58 by T F Smailes at Sheffield in 1939
For Derbyshire 13 for 65 by W Mycroft at Sheffield in 1879