Derbyshire County Cricket Club

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 County Cricket Club took place on 4 November 1870 at a meeting in the Guildhall, Derby. The Earl of Chesterfield, who had played for and against All-England, was the first President, G. H. Strutt was Vice-President and Walter Boden, who had campaigned for the club's foundation for three years, was secretary. Also present at the meeting was Boden's brother, Henry. When Chesterfield died the following year, William Jervis became President.[5]

Derbyshire's opening season was 1871 when the club played its initial first-class match versus Lancashire at Old Trafford Cricket Ground on 26 and 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, which was then based on the number of matches against other teams of similar standing. 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 and wicket-keeping 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 despite the efforts of Sam Cadman and Arthur Morton, persevering professionals. From 1926, the nucleus of a good team emerged around some doughty batting from Denis Smith, Stan Worthington and George Pope. Pope's bowling and that of his brother Alf, leg spinner Tommy Mitchell and seam bowler 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 five on first innings. Worthington, Les 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 which was captained by AW Richardson.

There have been more downs than ups in post-war years. Though runs came regularly from Arnold Hamer and less consistently from 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 seam 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 and Dominic Cork. Spin was in short supply apart from the steady work of Edwin Smith and the under-rated all-rounder Geoff Miller, the current national selector of the England team and noted after-dinner speaker. The signing of Eddie Barlow, the famous South African, in 1976 and the lengthy period under the captaincy of Kim Barnett, starting in 1983, meant the side were rarely uncompetitive.

Derbyshire were crowned County Championship Division Two champions in 2012 after securing a 6-wicket victory over Hampshire on the final day of the season at the County Ground, as Karl Krikken's side won promotion after securing more wins over the course of the season than Yorkshire who also finished the campaign on 194 points.

After the conclusion of the 2013 season, Derbyshire announced a new Elite Cricket Performance model in the next phase of the Club’s quest for sustainable on-field success across all three domestic competitions, combined with the desire to produce England cricketers. Former Derbyshire bowler Graeme Welch [6] was appointed the new Elite Cricket Performance Director in January 2014.

• No. denotes the player's squad number, as worn on the back of their shirt.
• denotes players with international caps.
•  *  denotes a player who has been awarded a county cap.

No.	Name	Nationality	Birth date	Batting Style	Bowling Style	Notes
Batsmen
1	Billy Godleman*	England	(1989-02-11) 11 February 1989	Left-handed	Right-arm leg break	Captain (FC & List A)
76	Leus du Plooy	South Africa	(1995-01-12) 12 January 1995	Left-handed	Slow left-arm orthodox	Kolpak registration
77	Wayne Madsen*	South Africa	(1984-01-02) 2 January 1984	Right-handed	Right-arm off break	UK passport
—	Tom Wood	England	(1994-05-11) 11 May 1994	Right-handed	Right-arm medium
All-rounders
10	Luis Reece*	England	(1990-08-04) 4 August 1990	Left-handed	Left-arm medium
18	Alex Hughes*	England	(1991-09-29) 29 September 1991	Right-handed	Right-arm medium
20	Matt Critchley*	England	(1996-08-13) 13 August 1996	Right-handed	Right-arm leg break
21	Mattie McKiernan	England	(1994-06-14) 14 June 1994	Right-handed	Right-arm leg break
33	Fynn Hudson-Prentice	England	(1996-01-12) 12 January 1996	Right-handed	Right-arm fast-medium
53	Nils Priestley	England	(2000-09-18) 18 September 2000	Left-handed	Right-arm medium
65	Anuj Dal	England	(1996-07-08) 8 July 1996	Right-handed	Right-arm medium
Wicket-keepers
16	Harvey Hosein	England	(1996-08-12) 12 August 1996	Right-handed	—
Bowlers
8	Michael Cohen	South Africa	(1998-08-04) 4 August 1998	Left-handed	Left-arm fast-medium	EU Passport
14	Ravi Rampaul*	West Indies	(1984-10-15) 15 October 1984	Left-handed	Right-arm fast-medium	Kolpak registration
28	Tony Palladino*	England	(1983-06-29) 29 June 1983	Right-handed	Right-arm fast-medium
30	Dustin Melton	Zimbabwe	(1995-04-11) 11 April 1995	Right-handed	Right-arm fast-medium	UK Passport
59	Sam Conners	England	(1999-02-13) 13 February 1999	Right-handed	Right-arm fast-medium