Chesterfield in midsummer

Michael Henderson

‘The moon in June’ goes the refrain. At Chesterfield it was a day for Gilbert and Sullivan and the merciless sun, ‘whose rays are all ablaze’.

My word, it was hot. Not too darn hot, as Cole Porter put it, but hot enough, particularly when Derbyshire lost their first four wickets for 17 as they began their second innings 244 runs behind Yorkshire. In the end they made a game of it, a tighter game than anybody imagined after that dismal start to the second afternoon, before Yorkshire squeezed home by three wickets.

The freshness of May begins to evaporate in June. The hawthorn fades. The trees lose their lushness, though the limes on the bank at Queen’s Park, beneath the bandstand looked magnificent as ever.

Is there a finer setting for county cricket in England? Scarborough, perhaps, for we do like to be beside the seaside, or Cheltenham, with its tents and college chapel. Arundel is glorious, and Hove retains traces of the Golden Age. But the mind returns to those seven lime trees.

Thank goodness we can enjoy all these places, until the sky falls. Eventually all cricket will be played in accordance with Indian rules, from Riyadh to Burbank, so it would be foolish not to indulge in these innocent bucolic frolics.

Queen’s Park is not far from Chatsworth, England’s grandest country seat, and close to mining country, or where the pits used to be. Yet there’s nothing hoity-toity about it, nor proletarian. It’s where cricket-lovers of different temperaments can meet on common ground. 

Over the years they’ve seen some wonderful things, and some curios. The oddest came in 1973 when the Peakites were playing Yorkshire, and John Hampshire decided to take on Alan Ward, Derbyshire’s fast bowler. He did it so well that Ward, summoned to bowl later in the innings, told Brian Bolus, his captain, that he would rather not.

Bolus, who had started his career at Yorkshire, and later became a Test selector when Raymond Illingworth was the England coach, ordered Ward from the field. Unusually for a cricket story, it made the back pages. Even Brian Clough, then at the height of his notoriety, and a keen follower of cricket, got involved. ‘I back Bolus every step of the way’, he told readers of The Sun.

It was a shame, because Ward was a very fine bowler, who never quite fulfilled his promise, for club or country. A decade later another fast bowler, Devon Malcolm, enjoyed more success, with both teams.

Neil Fairbrother of Lancashire adopted a similar approach to Hampshire, making 161 against an attack led by Ian Bishop, who was ferociously fast. Stalwarts with long memories will tell you that the 94 runs John Wright made against the West Indian tourists in 1980 were the hardest earned of his career. Wright, the New Zealand opening batsman, was an immensely popular overseas player for Derbyshire, whose teams have fielded quite a few foreign stars: Eddie Barlow, Michael Holding, Michael Slater, Daryll Cullinan and, briefly, Lawrence Rowe, who made a triple century for West Indies against England in 1974.

The Chesterfield innings people talk about most readily is the double century Mohammad Azharuddin made against Durham in 1994. Was it really three decades ago? With each visit to Queen’s Park the years roll away.  

Six times the Indian charmer drove David Graveney into the chestnuts at the town end, sweet as a nut. It was the placement of his other strokes which caught the eye, though. On the two days he was at the crease, batting in a losing cause, he played a game unknown to his partners. It was sheer enchantment.

Haider Ali and Leus du Plooy may also be added to the Chesterfield pantheon, for it was their fifth wicket stand of 277 which gave their team a sniff of a most improbable victory.

Haider, who was shuffled down the order to No 6 after his first innings duck, played superbly on the second afternoon, defying predictions of a finish within five sessions. Du Plooy, the captain, grew in confidence to complete a fine century of his own against nonplussed bowlers. Dom Bess, an offspinner who has played for England, was treated roughly; not for the first time.

There was a moment of low comedy when Haider reached his first century in this country. He kissed the pitch, and knelt towards Matlock, as common law insists all good Peakites must. It was a valiant effort, which may do his team a lot of good, despite this defeat. That stand with Du Plooy is the kind of thing that gives heart to team-mates.

That is not to overlook Dawid Malan’s century, ended by Suranga Lakmal’s magnificent diving catch at mid-off. Catches like that also bolster spirits in the dressing-room, and the nine wickets Mark Watt took with his finger spinners also deserve note.

Yorkshire’s mighty first innings advantage was always likely to prove decisive, gallantly as Derbyshire played thereafter. At 147 for seven, with 75 still needed, they had a chance. Bess then made 41 at a run a ball, and Shan Masood was five short of a century when the team he leads crossed the threshold.

It was a bitter moment for Derbyshire. Last year Masood played eight matches for them, making 1,074 runs. Most of them very pleasantly indeed. Yorkshire made him an offer he couldn’t refuse, and the Pakistani was at the crease when they completed the county’s first championship victory for 14 months.