Annual investment in cricket in Queen’s Park.
The delights of county cricket in the park
High summer and the scene before me albeit on an overcast Derbyshire morning is an idyllic one as I gaze across the green sword with the 22 yard yellowish strip marked out for today’s match awaiting the arrival of the players from behind a careworn looking sightscreen, white in a previous life, that is draped over the front of the Victorian Pavilion. Imran Tahir, the veteran South African Test player signs autographs convivially in front of said pavilion from which the players will soon emerge in their whites. Beyond the boundary rope and the rows of seats steadily filling up with spectators a line of trees ring the ground whilst in the background the ancient crooked spire adds to the timelessness of the setting as Mike Hendrick, the former Derbyshire & England seam bowler who once shared a dressing room with the likes of Botham, Willis, Gower & Boycott rings the five minute bell.
Yes it really is a delight to be here in Chesterfield’s Queen’s Park cricket ground. It’s a maiden visit for this Lancashire supporter and I’d travelled from my Liverpool home especially for the experience of this long established county outground.So what of the cricket? With the coin coming down in home skipper Billy Godleman’s favour it was no surprise that he opted to bat first but Durham’s seam attack albeit lacking the veteran former England man Graham Onions is a potent one and watchfulness was the order of the day for Derbyshire’s batsmen during the morning session. It was 20 year old Matt Critchley who shone with the bat chalking up an attractive century full of aggressive and well timed strokes.
After his departure home wickets tumbled to leave Derbyshire on 266 for 9.That they made it through to stumps without losing another wicket spoke volumes for the support offered by last man Gurjit Sandu to Godleman bringing the total to 332 at the close. The crowd streaming away in lovely evening sunshine had been entertained and this writer was already looking forward to his return to Queen’s Park.
