Friends allocate grants to promote Junior Cricket in the area

In initiatives to encourage an interest in cricket and provide future generations to appreciate the game in the area and in particular in Queen’s Park, Friends have allocated the following grants.

North Derbyshire Youth Cricket League Sponsorship

  • This assists in providing an opportunity for junior cricketers in the area’s Clubs to compete against each other.
  • The sponsorship will be applied to the operation of the league and will subsidise entry fees for individual clubs.
  • In doing this we assist Clubs in forming teams and enhance interest in cricket amongst junior players. The sponsorship will assist all the Clubs participating in the League.

Junior Cricket Festival

  • We are extending the opportunity for junior cricketers to play in additional fixtures this year by creating a Junior Cricket Festival at the Queen’s Park. This will be administered by NDYCL.
  • In addition to some additional fixtures, it will give junior cricketers in North Derbyshire clubs the opportunity to play at the world famous Queen’s Park, Chesterfield.
  • This will be a One Day Festival in the summer holidays and will comprise a knockout competition between teams that will be invited to participate by NDYCL.
  • It is hoped to invite as many teams as possible and this will attract many family supporters to the day.

Recruitment & Retention

  • It was reported to us that Clubs within the area are having difficulties in recruiting and retaining junior players. We want to encourage Clubs to think of totally new ideas of how this could be done and implement them with the assistance of a grant from us.
  • If, after evaluation, these are successful, the ideas will be circulated to other Clubs to implement.

Volunteer of the Year Award

  • Junior Club cricket relies on many volunteers to enable it to run effectively. These volunteers take on numerous roles – coaching, scoring, providing catering, work on the ground, fundraising etc.
  • These volunteers are often the unsung heroes without whom many clubs would not survive.
  • The winner, selected by NDYCL, will receive a Trophy and their club will be given a £100 voucher to spend on equipment

Encouraging More Young People in the Area to play Cricket

  • We are committed to see more young people play cricket related games throughout the area, not only at the Queen’s Park.
  • We have held discussions with clubs, school organisations and Derbyshire Cricket Foundation to formulate a plan for us to do this in the near future
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Friends Contribute Towards Irrigation System for QP Square

Many people contributed to The Mike Taylor Fund which was set up to provide a new irrigation system for the square. This was something that Mike wanted to see happen and he provided a bequest to assist in the funding of the project which went into the fund set up in his name. Friends were pleased to be the other funder, contributing a grant of £2500 to enable this project to be completed. It  mean much improved access for the Groundsmen to watering facilities for our square

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David Griffin commissioned by Friends to write ‘The History of Cricket at Queen’s Park, Chesterfield’

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

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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.

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Derbyshire v Sussex 30th July 1969 Gillette Cup Semi-Final

1969 saw the seventh year of the Gillette Cup and after beating Somerset at Taunton, Worcestershire at Derby, and Glamorgan at Cardiff, Derbyshire were up against a strong Sussex side at Queen’s Park

A huge crowd assembled, the official capacity was 10,582 and gate receipts were £3,520 12 shillings.

Friends members share their memories:

Simon Vickers recalls ‘It was the first cricket match I ever attended. I had to lie on the outfield between the boundary rope and the hoardings. What a start to my DCCC life’

After overnight rain a warm sunny day allowed a prompt start. Derek Morgan won the toss and opted to bat. Gibbs and Smith began sedately before Smith was out LBW with the score at 34. Batting, bowling and fielding was made difficult on the damp pitch and runs were difficult to come by. Gibbs played the best innings before he was out for 44. Morgan and Harvey both played useful innings and a lusty blow or two from Ward and Rumsey added to the total, but the innings closed at 2.45pm with a modest total of 136 on the board. Bruce Baskerville remembers ‘ I seem to recall us batting the full 60 overs for about 140. It was my first big match’.

Very few Derbyshire fans thought that 136 was enough but expectations soon changed when after 14 overs from Ward and Rumsey Sussex were 10 for 2, soon to become 12 for 3 when Rumsey bowled Suttle. The crowd were now livening up and sensing Derbyshire had a chance of victory.

Alan Roe recalls ‘I remember the crowd, people were climbing up the trees on the bank side to get a better view and the roar every time a Derbyshire bowler came in to bowl was more like a football crowd’.

The Daily Telegraph match report recalls the crowd being ‘gaily dressed and volatile’.

12 for 3 became 27 for 4 when Eyre took the wicket of Greig and tea was taken with 38 overs left for Sussex to score a further 110 runs. Soon after tea Rumsey took the fifth wicket before Peter Eyre took the last five wickets in front of a rapturous crowd to give Derbyshire victory by 87 runs.

Great scenes at the end of the match saw the crowd flock onto the pitch to applaud and congratulate the Derbyshire players.

Peter Eyre was duly awarded the Man of the Match for the magnificent bowling figures 10.2-4-18-6, and can be seen in the photo enjoying the adulation from Alan Ward and Fred Rumsey.

Derbyshire had qualified for their first final at Lords and 53 years later fans still recall this great day in the Queen’s Park with excitement.

Pete Winson recalls ‘Greatest game I ever saw in the Park. 10,500 there. A day I’ll never forget’

Christopher Wintle remembers ‘The greatest day for me as a Derbyshire supporter. I was sat in the pavilion and the sight of 10,000 in the park will live with me forever. I was 14 at the time’

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