The Return of County Cricket
After a century of first-class cricket at Chesterfield between 1898 and 1998, the next seven seasons saw Derbyshire play no First Class or List A matches on the ground.
However, following a multi-million pound refurbishment and upgrade of the entire park including the cricketing facilities, Derbyshire returned by taking on Worcestershire in a County Championship Division Two game between 26 and 29 July. The game ended in a draw, with Australian Marcus North avoiding defeat for the home side by scoring 161 runs, including 24 boundaries. Attendances for all four days was high, and saw Derbyshire announce a four-year deal to play County Cricket at the ground soon after the game.
The Sunday then saw a visit from a star-studded Surrey Brown Caps side and despite a heavy loss, a large crowd were treated to some entertainment by Surrey batsman Ali Brown who scored 106 from just 68 deliveries.
Read more about this topic: Queen's Park, Chesterfield
Famous quotes containing the words return, county and/or cricket:
“The house waited on your private beach
each day,
when you had the time to return to her.
And you so often had the time,
even when fury blew out her chimney,
even when love lifted the shingles....”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“Don’t you know there are 200 temperance women in this county who control 200 votes. Why does a woman work for temperance? Because she’s tired of liftin’ that besotted mate of hers off the floor every Saturday night and puttin’ him on the sofa so he won’t catch cold. Tonight we’re for temperance. Help yourself to them cloves and chew them, chew them hard. We’re goin’ to that festival tonight smelling like a hot mince pie.”
—Laurence Stallings (1894–1968)
“The thing that struck me forcefully was the feeling of great age about the place. Standing on that old parade ground, which is now a cricket field, I could feel the dead generations crowding me. Here was the oldest settlement of freedmen in the Western world, no doubt. Men who had thrown off the bands of slavery by their own courage and ingenuity. The courage and daring of the Maroons strike like a purple beam across the history of Jamaica.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)