Match Preview: Gloucestershire (H)

After a ten day break without any first team cricket, Derbyshire return to the Central Co-op County Ground to face Gloucestershire who they defeated in the opening game of the 2025 season.

Heritage Officer David Griffin previews the match.

That game at Derby, the season-opener in early April, was played in unseasonably warm sunshine and dominated by Caleb Jewell, Wayne Madsen and Luis Reece.

Gloucestershire batted first and made 222 with Reece taking six for 52 before Jewell on his debut scored 61 and Madsen 118 and Harry Came 83 as Derbyshire racked up 391 in only 78.5 overs, a rate of more than five runs an over.

Gloucestershire managed 259 in their second innings with opener Ben Charlesworth reaching three figures as Reece took his match analysis to ten for 97.

By mid-afternoon on the third day Derbyshire completed a comprehensive nine wickets win as Jewell scored another half century to complete a fine first game for the county.

There have been 140 scheduled first class games between these two counties, Derbyshire winning 33, Gloucestershire 50 with 44 draws.

Two matches were completely abandoned, at Bristol in 1980 and Derby in 2024, with the other game, in 1987 at Bristol, ending as the sole tied first class match in Derbyshire’s history.

The counties first met at Derby in August 1886, when the visitors won by 47 runs. The legendary WG Grace scored just 22 runs across two innings for Gloucestershire but bowled unchanged throughout Derbyshire’s first innings of 55 taking six for 34 off 21.2 overs

Derbyshire’s highest innings total of 545 for nine came at Bristol in 2015, an innings dominated by Martin Guptill’s 227 which included 11 sixes, a club record, and was the main contribution to a seven wicket win for the visitors.

Gloucestershire’s largest total of 577 for nine was also at Bristol in a drawn game in 2002.

The highest individual score for Derbyshire is 229 by John Morris at Cheltenham in 1993, an innings of brilliance on a fast pitch against high quality pace bowling from the West Indian Courtney Walsh.

Gloucestershire’s top individual score of 237 was made by the legendary Wally Hammond at Bristol in 1938, one of six hundreds he made against Derbyshire. Shaun Young also scored 237, at Cheltenham in 1997.

The best bowling figures for Derbyshire are still George Davidson’s nine for 42 at Derby in 1886, although Ken Graveney managed to take all ten for Gloucestershire – for 66 runs – at Chesterfield in 1949.

The best match figures for Derbyshire are Les Townsend’s 14 for 90 at Queen’s Park in 1933, and for the visitors Tom Goddard’s 15 for 107 at Bristol in 1949 tops the list.

Derbyshire recorded a win against Gloucestershire in the most remarkable match this writer has ever witnessed. On a green-tinged pitch in late August 2010 Derbyshire were dismissed for 44 in a mere 16.1 overs, James Franklin taking seven for 14 for the hosts.

Before tea on the second day, however, following a multitude of twists and turns and a fine 96 not out from Chesney Hughes, Derbyshire won the game by 54 runs. Graham Wagg with six wickets, and Tim Groenewald and Steffan Jones with five apiece took the bowling honours.

The first day score of 44 all out is unsurprisingly the lowest first innings total Derbyshire have ever made before going on to win a match.

In 2001 Chris Bassano scored 186 not out and 106 against Gloucestershire at Derby, the first player in the history of the game to score hundreds in each innings on his Championship debut. That game was also memorable for non-cricketing reasons; the vacant Grandstand Hotel caught fire resulting in a plume of grey smoke floating across the outfield as play continued.

Kim Barnett is the sole player to score a hundred before lunch against Gloucestershire; indeed, he reached three figures at just after 12.30pm on the opening day of the game at Derby in 1988. He dominated proceedings to such an extent that when he was dismissed, he had made 175 out of 250 runs scored while he was in the middle.

The highest partnership against Gloucestershire is the 302 added by Morris and Dominic Cork (with help from Matthew Vandrau when Cork retired hurt) for the fifth wicket at Cheltenham in 1993 while more recently Madsen and Alex Hughes have taken part in two double century partnerships at Bristol, 278 for the fourth wicket in 2019 and 233 for the third wicket in 2017.

Only three Derbyshire players have ever scored a hundred or more runs and taken ten or more wickets in a game, the most recent instance being against Gloucestershire at Derby in 2008 when Graham Wagg scored 29 and 72 and took six for 56 and four for 77.