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News and views on Derbyshire County Cricket Club from a supporter of 60 years standing. Follow me on X/Twitter @Peakfanblog Sunday, 23 August 2026 Where do I begin? 13 comments: As you have been following Derbyshire as long as me Peakfan you must have had to do what I have once again decided to do. See the funny side: as you may have gathered from my post on the Durham game. ReplyDelete Let's face it. As much as we'd like to think otherwise our opinions are of only marginal interest to those who run the club and we aren't going to suddenly stop supporting the club are we? Cause not. We will probably improve a bit again soon and this current performance will fade away into the distance. Derbyshire will continue to be also rans and we will just put up with it. Maybe some time before we shuffle off this mortal coil they might do something good but if they don't so be it. It really was a lovely dog!RepliesWell reluctantly my wife and I stopped being members at the end of last season. Delete Losing was not the be all and end all but we had slipped so far behind. I recall many of the T20 games that quite frankly we ranked no better than minor counties. we left the ground embarrassed. So this year. Never felt temped to return. They have got worse if possible. It's all very sad. It's interesting that over the course of this (very good) article you question or allude to others questioning just about everything. ReplyDelete This for me shows the extent of the discontent amongst the club's fan base. The fact people are questioning whether we should have batting and bowling coaches or analysts is wild though, we're a professional club and these are a given. We ahould indeed have an elite coaching structure because you can be sure that without it we definitely won't attract decent players nor develop them. There's an argument that's the status quo however the one element that's clearly not elite is the head coach, there is only so long he can dine out on yesterday's achievements as he's not in touch with modern cricket at this level. He has to go, the cost of not getting rid of him in terms of supporter apathy and discontent is far higher than the cost of paying him off. Memberships will be well down next season already and a fresh face could avert that. I'm very jealous of what Dawson is doing at Glamorgan. Positive cricket, young players getting chances. And indeed Northants who are a strong multi format side. We're totally rudderless and going nowhere under MA and that's been clear for sometime.- CastleBlack23 August 2026 at 14:03 Much talk about how good Durham's attack is - yes, to a point, but Derbyshire's batsmen made part-time county dobber Will Rhodes look like Glenn McGrath. Bizarrely, and for the first time in years, the home groundsman gave the top-of-the-league opposition a bowling pitch to die for and the Durham attack did what it needed to do - bowl at the stumps - which resulted in 8/19 dismissals bowled and lbw and most of the others caught behind or in the cordon. It's maybe churlish to criticise such a legend, but how Madsen can take a guard about 2 feet outside off stump to an accurate international bowler and not expect to be lbw I don't know. ReplyDelete - Anonymous23 August 2026 at 15:52 A thoughtful post, Steve, as always. ReplyDelete I have some sympathy with Mickey. You could see how frustrated he was from the interview on the club web site following the game. He said more than once that we’re “miles off” a team like Durham. In previous interviews he has said the players have all the necessary skills, but sometimes they fail to execute them. I’ve said before, as others have who post on the blog, that in many games Derbyshire seem to have a poor collective winning mentality. Collapsititis is a symptom of this. Other than bringing in a sports psychologist, I don’t know what the answer to this problem is. A hypnotist maybe? On paper, we have some good players, but, when it matters, we fail to win games. For example, in the T20 in 2024 we had the firepower of Donald, Whiteley and Patel in our batting, and a fit Pat Brown and Chappell leading the bowling attack, but we lost seven of our 13 games. In 2025, we lost nine of our 13 games. I too look at Northants and Sussex, and wonder why we can’t emulate what they are doing. Downthewicket As ever Steve that is a very thought provoking article. ReplyDelete I'm a very infrequent poster but I do try and read the blog when I can. For medical reasons I've suddenly found myself with a lot of time on my hands and I've used it in part to watch a series of interviews conducted largely by Dave Griffin with former Derbyshire players. One of these was Kim Barnett and he was clearly motivated as Captain by a wish to get other teams to take us seriously and give us respect, a task in which I think he succeeded. I don't think that we have that drive now and I suspect that Wayne Madsen only became captain again due to a complete lack of alternatives. This is not a criticism of the Great Madsen himself but I think it does show how we have come to over rely on him. There has been much talk in the past about what we are going to do when Madders retires. As even his biggest admirers would reluctantly admit (and I'm definitely one of them) there are clear signs that his long day in the sun is at last drawing to a close. For once we have done some forward planning, with Matt Montgomery apparently lined up as the next Captain. I'm not sure if he is supposed to be Madder's replacement as a batter as well but a career batting average of just over 30 and two FC 100s would suggest that this is somewhat optimistic if it is indeed the case. Indeed all our other batters have similar averages in the low 30s except for Madsen. Our reliance on the same players over the last few years for what are fairly meagre results in a time of batting plenty, shows up the short sightedness of not giving some youngsters a chance while Madsen was still able to carry us. Maybe Wagstaff or whoever would have been found wanting but at least we would have known and we could have looked for alternatives rather than keeping people on the staff for no particular purpose. As it is, we're simply left with the usual suspects.- David exiled in Co Durham23 August 2026 at 17:11 Amongst all your other salient comments you ask "who among our batters has got better. The simple answer is none - they have all got worse. ReplyDelete Comparison of this years Championship performance for specialist batters and last years shows: 2026 2025 Innings Runs Average 100+ 50+ Innings Runs Average 100+ 50+ Caleb Jewell 15 332 22.13 0 2 22 1005 47.86 1 8 Harry Came 16 468 31.20 1 3 23 843 38.32 1 7 Matt Montgomery 16 424 30.29 0 3 Brooke Guest 14 376 26.86 1 1 22 651 36.17 0 5 Martin Andersson 14 559 39.93 2 1 16 714 47.60 3 3 Luis Reece 14 510 39.23 1 3 16 643 64.30 1 4 Anuj Dal 6 129 21.50 0 1 14 312 31.20 0 1 Wayne Madsen 12 449 40.82 1 2 22 1158 57.90 4 5 David Lloyd 16 377 23.56 0 2 Nye Donald 5 156 39.00 0 1 - Anonymous23 August 2026 at 19:10 As a member how do I feel about MA being with us next season, the simple answer is that I am unlikely to be a member. To paraphrase Einstein, the definition of madness is to keep doing the same things & expect different outcomes. I can see absolutely nothing in terms of player development, signings or in what MA says in interviews that would lead me to believe that next year will be anything other than poor with MA in charge. ReplyDelete What we should do is part company with him. If that costs us money so be it. At present there is almost zero enthusiasm or positivity around the club. I fear leaving him in charge could actually kill the club MarkBReplies- Ian from Suffolk23 August 2026 at 20:54 This is one of the best posts I’ve ever seen on this blog. It is just so amazingly obvious things will not get any better under Arthur. No one expect Derbyshire to be world beaters but blimey at the moment we wouldn’t be many minor counties teams. Mickey Arthur is worst then a bad used car salesman. I admire anyone who watches the livestream anymore as for paying to watch at the ground I think £3 maximum and that would be if I lived next door Delete - Paul Fitzpatrick23 August 2026 at 20:01 I’m not sure what to think about the biggest defeat in terms of runs in red ball history but accept 3 of Durhams bowlers are England class and thankfully Ben Raine was injured .!! ReplyDelete We have been ravaged by injuries to bowlers but the collective resolve of the team seems to evaporate when the pressure is on 5 years into Arthur’s tenure I’m not sure we have moved on and it’s probably time to reassess . I doubt Mickey will instigate that discussion . In recent weeks I’ve prioritised playing golf and coaching or watching grass roots cricket. - Anonymous23 August 2026 at 20:21 Are we being too harsh? Leics have won more games than Surrey. We are above Lancs. Imagine how their fans feel, with all their riches! Kris ReplyDeleteRepliesI don't think so, Kris. Lancashire plough most of their resources into T20. They have won 2 matches this year... One against us. Delete Gloucestershire have picked up 41 points all season. They have lost 8 matches out of 9. Yet they beat us by 10 wickets and took 21 points from the game. Half of their points this year came against us. For me, that is more damning than losing to Durham...