Match Preview: Northamptonshire (A)

Derbyshire’s penultimate game of the season is against Northamptonshire at Wantage Road where the visitors will want to complete the double after a crushing win by an innings and 113 runs in the game at Derby in May.

Heritage Officer David Griffin previews the match.

These two sides have met on 179 occasions in first class cricket with Derbyshire winning 53, Northamptonshire 62 and 63 matches drawn plus one complete abandonment at Chesterfield in 2016.

The sides drew their two matches in 2025, both of which were high-scoring affairs with five centuries across both games from Justin Broad, Rob Keogh, Luke Procter and Saif Zaib for Northamptonshire and Martin Andersson for Derbyshire.

Derbyshire’s highest innings total in these games is 604 for seven declared at Derby in May 2026 when Brooke Guest scored 141 and Martin Andersson 106. There were half centuries too for Harry Came, Caleb Jewell, Wayne Madsen and Matthew Montgomery before Derbyshire dismissed their opponents for 228 and 263 with Ben Aitchison, Shoaib Bashir and Zak Chappell taking five wickets apiece in the match.

Derbyshire’s lowest total is 46 at Northampton in 1912 in a very low-scoring match; Derbyshire batted first and made 67 all out and the hosts replied with 56 all out. Derbyshire then made 46 in the third innings before Northamptonshire concluded with 58 for four in the last innings to win by six wickets.

Northamptonshire’s highest team total is 647 for five – the fourth highest score ever made against Derbyshire – which secured them an innings victory at Derby in 2003. Their lowest total is 42 all out, at Derby in 1908.

Derbyshire’s batsmen have scored 70 centuries against Northamptonshire with Wayne Madsen’s 231 not out in 2012 at the top of the list. Michael Di Venuto scored 230 at Derby in 2002 and Peter Kirsten made 209, also at Derby in 1980.

The earliest hundred came in 1905, when Levi Wright scored 195 at Derby although another Wright, the New Zealander John, scored five hundreds against Northamptonshire, as did Garnet Lee.

Matt Critchley, who scored an unbeaten 137 against Northamptonshire at Derby in 2015, remains the youngest player to score a first-class century for Derbyshire – he was aged just 18 years and 270 days.

Luis Reece (168) made a hundred on his first-class debut for Derbyshire against Northamptonshire in the opening game of the 2017 season with Billy Godleman (156) also scoring a century. This was the second instance of both opening batsmen making centuries in the same innings against Northamptonshire, Madsen and Chris Rogers having performed the feat at Northampton in 2010.

The Reece-Godleman partnership in 2017 was 333, a record at the time for Derbyshire’s first wicket in all first-class cricket, and the fifth highest for any wicket overall for the county. Reece and Harry Came have since overtaken the first wicket record, adding 360 against Glamorgan at Derby in 2023.

Northamptonshire’s highest individual score in these contests is Fred Bakewell’s 241 not out at Chesterfield in 1936, while the best innings bowling figures were recorded by George Thompson who took nine for 64 at Northampton in 1906. The best match figures were posted by Michael Allen who took 13 for 98 at Northampton in 1961. Allen subsequently played for Derbyshire between 1964 and 1966.

Rob Bailey, who enjoyed a lengthy career at Wantage Road before joining Derbyshire, holds the record for most first class hundreds for Northamptonshire against Derbyshire, making six, of which two were at Derby, in 1986 and 1993.

Derbyshire players have produced some impressive all-round performances over the years against Northamptonshire; Garnet Lee, at Northampton in 1927, scored 100 and took 12-143 in the match, one of only three instances of a player making a century and taking 10 wickets in a game for the county.

A year later Lee scored 30 and 155 and took five for 57 – again at Northampton – while George Pope, at Chesterfield in 1947, scored a century and took six for 43 in Northamptonshire’s first innings.

Jon Clare also had a fine all-round match at Northampton in 2008 scoring 129 not out and then taking seven for 74 in the hosts’ only innings.

The best innings analysis by a Derbyshire bowler is nine for 43 by Dominic Cork at Derby in 1995. Arguably at the height of his bowling powers, Cork’s performance was masterly, bowling unchanged throughout the innings for 22 overs. He added four for 50 in the second innings, but, despite his Herculean effort, the visitors won by four wickets.

There have been 25 instances of bowlers taking 10 wickets in a match for Derbyshire against Northamptonshire with Sam Cadman’s 14-104 at Northampton in 1920 at the top of the table.

England leg-spinner, Tommy Mitchell performed the feat on five occasions and another leg-spinner, Matt Critchley was the latest to do it, taking 10-194 in the win at Chesterfield in 2018.

Two Derbyshire bowlers have performed the hat trick in these fixtures – Harry Storer at Chesterfield in 1922 and Les Townsend at Northampton in 1931.