We are delighted to announce that David Griffin has accepted a commission from Friends to write a book on the history of cricket in the Queen’s Park.

David is celebrating 50 years of being a member of Derbyshire County Cricket Club this season. This lifelong support resulted in him having official roles with the County Club. He served on the main board from 1999 – 2014, was the Honorary Secretary for 8 years and has served as the Club’s official photographer and Heritage Officer. As Heritage Project Manager he was an integral part of The Cricket Derbyshire Foundation receiving £60,600 of funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund to launch the Proud to be Derbyshire Project, designed to safeguard and promote the heritage of cricket across the county. In 2017, the Foundation received a grant of £72,200 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to undertake a 2-year project designed to record the recollections and memories of people involved in cricket at all levels across Derbyshire. David’s popular Twitter postings have over 5,500 followers. His daily video postings on all things cricket are very highly regarded.

The book will be about cricket at Queen’s Park, Chesterfield, with the objective of producing a defining volume examining the history of the ground outlining the major feats which have taken place here. It will be a celebration of the ground and its significant part as a major venue in the history of cricket nationally and internationally, it will stress its continued importance as a first class cricketing venue.

In the modern game the presence of Chesterfield is of increasing importance as it is one of very few out grounds used by the 18 counties, and arguably also acts as a throwback to an era when the county game was truly a county game with matches staged at a plethora of non-HQ grounds countrywide.

There surely can’t be a better person than David to author this book. He already gives much valued assistance to Friends.

This extensive, fully illustrated book will be published next season and will be launched at the 2024 Chesterfield Festival