Match Preview: Middlesex (A)

Derbyshire conclude the opening tranche of six County Championship matches with a visit to Lord’s to face Middlesex.

Heritage Officer David Griffin previews the match.

When these two counties met in late April, 2025 at Derby the home side had the better of the game, forcing the follow-on but ultimately being unable to secure victory.

The return fixture in September at Lord’s was also drawn as rain washed out the best part of a day and a half of playing time.

Middlesex’ have won 37 of the 107 first class games against Derbyshire who have won 25 times. There have also been 44 drawn matches since they first met in 1929 including one abandonment at Lord’s in 1931.

Derbyshire’s highest team total is 557 for six declared at Derby in 2019 when five Derbyshire players made scores of 90 or more, a unique occurrence in the county’s history; Leus du Plooy (118), Billy Godleman (102), Luis Reece (96), Fynn Hudson-Prentice (99) and Anuj Dal (92) were the record-breakers.

Hudson-Prentice is the only player to be dismissed for 99 on his debut for Derbyshire and later in the game became the fifth player in Derbyshire’s history to take a wicket with his first ball for the club.

The record margin win of 363 runs came at Derby in 1996 when a title-chasing Derbyshire destroyed the visitors thanks to a hundred in each innings by Chris Adams, a further century from Dean Jones and 12-83 in the match for Andrew Harris. It was as comprehensive a win as ever recorded by the county in first class matches.

That 1996 result was revenge for the drubbing at the same venue in 1994 when Middlesex scored 545 and won by an innings and 96 runs, Richard Johnson taking 10-45 in Derbyshire’s second innings, the best innings figures ever recorded at Derby.

Twenty two different players have scored a total of 32 hundreds for Derbyshire against Middlesex including Wayne Madsen and Luis Reece of the current squad.

Chris Adams (three) has scored the most hundreds against Middlesex, although Michael Di Venuto’s 192 not out at Lord’s in 2002 is the highest. The best at Derby came from Harry Storer who made 170 in 1932.

The highest individual score for Middlesex in these games is Mike Gatting’s 215 not out at Lord’s in 1991 while the highest at Derby is Dawid Malan’s 199 in 2019.

With the ball, 25 bowlers have taken five wickets in an innings 51 times for Derbyshire with Les Jackson’s eight instances leading the way. Jackson produced the best innings analysis of eight for 44 at The Ind Coope Ground, Burton-on-Trent in 1960, although the best at Derby are Bill Copson’s seven for 39 in 1939.

At Lord’s Bill Mycroft’s eight for 47 in 1877 are the best figures for Derbyshire but their opponents on that occasion were MCC; against Middlesex at Lord’s Les Jackson’s seven for 48 in 1956 remains the best.

The last Derbyshire bowler to take five wickets in an innings was Tony Palladino who bagged five for 39 at Derby in 2011.

There have been nine instances of Derbyshire bowlers taking 10 wickets in a match with Tommy Mitchell and Jackson performing the feat twice apiece with Mitchell’s 13 for 113 the best, at Derby in 1934.

The lowest score ever made in the second innings of a match against Derbyshire is 29, by Middlesex at Chesterfield in 1957, although things could have been even worse as at one stage they were 13 for nine. They required 30.2 overs to make 29 runs as Cliff Gladwin took five for 18 in 14 overs.

Eddie Gothard, who took a mere 18 first class wickets for the county – including that of the great Don Bradman in 1948 – took a hat trick against Middlesex at Derby in 1947 and then, somewhat improbably, persuaded the three victims to pose for a photograph with him at the close of play.

Eighty seven opposition wickets have fallen to the relatively unusual dismissal of Hit Wicket in Derbyshire’s long history, the most recent of which occurred in 2018 when Lockie Ferguson removed Nick Gubbins in that fashion during the game at Lord’s.