Match Preview: Kent (A)

For their second away fixture of the season, Derbyshire return to Canterbury, the scene of their comprehensive innings and 229 runs win in the final game of the 2025 season.

Heritage Officer David Griffin previews the match.

The foundation of Derbyshire’s victory last September was their monumental 698 for six, the third highest innings total in the county’s history.

After winning the toss, Derbyshire were always in control of the game and at the heart of their huge total was a magnificent third wicket partnership of 358 between Luis Reece and Wayne Madsen.

The new record for Derbyshire’s third wicket and the county’s third highest partnership for any wicket saw Reece score 211 and Madsen 198 and with half centuries from Aneurin Donald, Martin Andersson and Anuj Dal Derbyshire declared during the afternoon session on the second day.

Thereafter, Derbyshire’s bowlers took charge as Jack Morley took five for 99 in Kent’s first innings and Reece five for 63 in the second.

In the process, Reece became the first Derbyshire player to score a double century and take five wickets in an innings in the same match.

And to round the season off in perfect style, the win completed a double over Kent for the first time since 1959.

The sides have met on 143 occasions in first class cricket, Derbyshire winning 42 games and Kent 58. A further 42 matches were drawn, while one match was abandoned without a ball bowled, at Chesterfield in September 2017.

Derbyshire’s lowest all out total against Kent is 36, at Wirksworth in 1874, although despite the paucity of that second innings total, Derbyshire still won, by 33 runs.

Kent’s highest team total is 615 all out at Derby in 1908 which unsurprisingly led them to an innings and 234 runs win, Kent’s largest margin of victory.

Kent’s lowest total is 25 all out which came in their defeat at Wirksworth in 1874 when the match-winner for Derbyshire was their first fast bowling champion, Bill Mycroft, who recorded match figures of eight for 23 off 50 four-ball overs.

A quirky statistic arose from the game at Derby in 1987 when both sides were all out for 287 in their first innings, only the fourth time in Derbyshire’s history that matching all out first innings totals have been made. There has been no repeat occurrence since.

An indication of how county cricket used to be shared out around the counties is confirmed by the list of grounds on which these two sides have met in first class cricket; Blackheath, Burton-on-Trent (two grounds), Buxton, Canterbury, Catford, Chatham, Chesterfield, Dartford, Derby, Dover, Folkestone, Gillingham, Gravesend, Ilkeston, Maidstone, Sheffield, Tonbridge, Tunbridge Wells (two grounds) and Wirksworth have all hosted Derbyshire versus Kent games.

There have been 49 first class hundreds scored against Kent, the first by Ludford Docker (107) at Maidstone in 1881 while the highest is Caleb Jewell’s 232 at Derby last year. Madsen’s five hundreds are the most by any player.

Donald Carr (1959) and Ian Hall (1965) both scored a hundred in each innings against Kent, and Billy Godleman repeated the feat with 108 and 105* at Derby in 2015.

Two batters have carried their bat in a completed innings against Kent; Denis Smith, who scored 57 out of 112 at Ilkeston in 1939 and Alan Hill, who made 48 out of 127 at Maidstone in 1984.

There have been 121 instances of Derbyshire bowlers taking five wickets in an innings, beginning with Mycroft’s five for eight at Wirksworth in 1874.

Mycroft took five wickets in an innings 13 times against Kent – capturing 113 wickets against them in 14 matches at an average of 11.07.

The best innings figures, however, belong to Stan Worthington who took eight for 41 at Chesterfield in 1928, a feat almost matched by Kevin Dean who took eight for 52 at Canterbury in 2000.

The rarer feat of 10 wickets in a match has been performed 15 times with Mycroft once again to the fore with three instances and a best of 12-42 at Catford in 1875.

Three bowlers have taken hat tricks against Kent – all at Derby – Joseph Marlow in 1884, Dominic Cork in 1994 and Kevin Dean in 1998, while the even more unusual feat of taking three wickets in four balls has been performed twice, at Derby in 1876 by Walter Hickton and at Canterbury in 1931 by Les Townsend.

Two debutants have taken five Kent wickets in an innings; George Hay (five for 15) at Derby in 1875, and Alan Mellor (five for 52) at Maidstone in 1978.

For the opposition, Wally Hardinge made five hundreds against Derbyshire; a player of remarkable durability, Hardinge played over 600 first class matches for Kent between 1902 and 1933.

Kent’s highest individual score against Derbyshire came from Bill Ashdown at Dover in August 1935 when he made an unbeaten 305, the fourth highest individual score against Derbyshire.

Amongst the bowlers AP ‘Tich’ Freeman took five Derbyshire wickets in an innings an amazing 21 times, including Kent’s best in these contests of nine for 50 at Ilkeston in 1930. Unsurprisingly Freeman took ten wickets in a match seven times against Derbyshire although the best match figures were recorded by the Australian born England Test fast bowler Martin McCague who took 15 for 147 at Derby in 1994.

McCague’s Herculean effort came in the same game in which Cork took  a hat trick and were the best match figures by an opposition bowler since 1949 and remain the fifth best match figures ever against Derbyshire.

Kent’s bowlers have taken four hat tricks against Derbyshire; William Pearce at Derby in 1878, Colin Blythe at Gravesend in 1910, Fred Ridgeway at Gravesend in 1951 when he took four wickets in four balls and Dean Headley at Derby in 1996.

Headley’s hat trick was a dramatic affair; Kent scored 445 in their first innings and when Derbyshire began their reply just before lunch on day two Kim Barnett struck Headley’s first two balls for four before the bowler removed Barnett, Chris Adams and Dean Jones with the next three.

An unusual statistic arose from the game at Derby in 2018 when for only the second time in their history, and for the first time since 1901, Derbyshire followed on after scoring 400 runs in their first innings.