Promotion-seeking Glamorgan travel to Derby for their penultimate contest in the 2025 Rothesay County Championship with the four-day game at Derbyshire’s headquarters scheduled to start at 1030am on Monday, 15 September (writes Andrew Hignell).
This is a massive game for both teams and one which could determine who joins Leicestershire in securing promotion into Division One of the four-day competition for 2026. After their draw against Northamptonshire at Wantage Road, Glamorgan remain in second place in the Division Two table, 25 points behind leaders Leicestershire whose draw at Grace Road with Gloucestershire sealed their elevation.
Whilst the West Country side still have a very slim mathematical chance of finishing second, Derbyshire in third place, 27 points behind Glamorgan, and Middlesex in fourth place, 30 points behind the Welsh county – depending on results plus the autumnal weather – could press the Welsh county as well as Derbyshire for second spot in what is set to be an enthralling and potentially nail-biting final two weeks of the four-day competition.
Glamorgan lost by ten wickets in their Championship encounter in 2024 at Derby having endured a nightmare start to their first innings, slipping to 32-6 after a dozen overs. Timm van der Gugten engineered a recovery to 168 with Zac Chappell ending up with figures of 6/47 before Derbyshire replied with 429. Batting for a second time half-centuries from Kiran Carlson and Colin Ingram helped Glamorgan avoid the ignominy of an innings defeat.
The contest at Derby in 2023 saw Glamorgan amass 521-8 with 136 by Colin Ingram plus half-centuries from Kiran Carlson, Billy Root, Chris Cooke and Zain ul Hassan before dismissing the Peakites for 318 and enforcing the follow-on. Luis Reece who had made 131 in the first innings then made his second three-figure score on the anodyne surface as Derbyshire responded with 360-0 with Reece unbeaten on 201 and his opening partner Harry Came making 141.
The two teams were involved in another high-scoring contest at Derby in 2022 with Glamorgan set a target of 331 in 55 overs on the final day. Despite a spirited stand between Marnus Labuschagne and Sam Northeast, the game ended in a draw. The Welsh county had been victorious on their previous visit to Derby in 2019 when they successfully chased 246 in 79 overs with Andrew Salter and Tom Cullen guiding their side to victory.
There are several major milestones looming for Colin Ingram who goes into this match just 10 runs away from reaching 10,000 runs in all first-class cricket. The southpaw has currently the fourth-highest aggregate for the summer in Division Two with a tally of 1011 runs to his name. Only Ben Compton of Kent with 1275, Saif Zaib of Northants with 1192 and Marcus Harris of Lancs with 1027 have scored more runs than the Glamorgan batter. Colin is also 48 runs away from reaching the milestone of 5,000 first-class runs for the Welsh county.
In addition, Kiran Carlson is also set to make his 100th first-class appearance for the Welsh county and, with a seasonal aggregate of 884 runs, the Cardiff-born batter needs a further 116 runs to also reach the 1,000-run landmark for the summer.