Match Preview: Worcestershire (H)

The County Championship gets underway on 3 April, the earliest-ever start to a season, with a home fixture against relegated Worcestershire at The Central Co-op County Ground, Derby.

Heritage Officer David Griffin previews the match.

Derbyshire finished in third place in division two in 2025, only five points behind second-placed Glamorgan and will be keen to get their season off to a flying start in an attempt to go at least one place higher this year.

Worcestershire visit Derby for the first time since they won the opening game of the 2023 season; and it was a perfect start to begin their challenge for promotion to the first division which they secured later that summer.

This game will be the 154th scheduled between the two counties with Derbyshire having slightly the better of the results since they first met in July 1899. Derbyshire have won 49 times, Worcestershire 46, with 56 draws and two matches abandoned, at Chesterfield in 1946 and Worcester in 1969.

Derbyshire’s highest innings total is 578 for five at New Road in 2023 when Leus du Plooy scored 238 not out, Wayne Madsen 143 and Anuj Dal an unbeaten 143.  Dal had taken five for 45 in Worcestershire’s first innings but, despite his all round effort, the match petered out into a draw.

A year earlier, Dal scored a hundred and a fifty and took five for 40 – again at Worcester – to help his side to a 98 runs win.

Dal is only the third Derbyshire cricketer – after Garnet Lee in 1927 and 1928 against Northamptonshire and Les Townsend against Somerset in 1934 and 1937 – to score a hundred and take five wickets in an innings twice against the same county.

Worcestershire’s largest innings total of 560 was dominated by Graeme Hick’s 173 at Kidderminster in 1993, a match which the home side won by nine wickets.

Derbyshire players have made 53 hundreds in these games with Du Plooy’s 238 topping the list, while Billy Godleman (204) and Stan Worthington (200*) have also made double hundreds. Godleman’s 204 is the highest against Worcestershire at Derby.

For the visitors, there have been 75 centuries with a best of 246 by Stephen Moore (who subsequently played briefly for Derbyshire) at Worcester in 2005. Their highest individual score at Derby is 228 not out by Tim Curtis in 1992.

Seven Derbyshire players have scored 1,000 or more runs against Worcestershire; Denis Smith with 1,492 made the most, followed by Les Townsend, Kim Barnett, Madsen, Arnold Hamer, Derek Morgan and Harry Storer. Madsen’s tally is currently 1,243 and if he carries his 2025 form into the new season he could overtake Smith. Madsen’s four first class hundreds are the most for Derbyshire against Worcestershire.

Derbyshire’s bowlers have taken five wickets in an innings 91 times with Cliff Gladwin’s nine for 41 at Amblecote in 1952 the standout analysis. Gladwin ended the match with 16-84 – the second best match analysis by any Derbyshire bowler – helping Derbyshire to a two-day win by an innings and 57 runs.

His famous opening partner, Les Jackson, is the only Derbyshire bowler to take a hat trick against Worcestershire, grabbing two, one at Kidderminster in 1958 and the other at Derby in 1960.

Len Coldwell’s eight for 41 at Kidderminster are Worcestershire’s best innings figures with the best match analysis coming from Fred Root who took 12-104 to help his side to a 223 runs win. Root, born in Somercotes, had been on the Derbyshire staff between 1910 and 1920 taking 63 wickets. In 12 subsequent seasons for Worcestershire, Root took 1,387 wickets.

Finally, if selected, Wayne Madsen is scheduled to play his 100th first class game at Derby in this fixture, joining a select band of cricketers who have reached this landmark, Kim Barnett, Sam Cadman, Harry Elliott and Levi Wright.

With Chesterfield hosting a first class game every year, leaving a mere six played at HQ, it will require a very talented – and resilient – cricketer to reach three figures in the future.