Glamorgan play their next match in the Rothesay County Championship as they welcome Derbyshire to Sophia Gardens, with the four-day game scheduled to start at 1100 on Friday, 2 May. (writes Andrew Hignell)
Derbyshire are currently in second place in Division Two having amassed 61 points from their four games so far this summer and having enjoyed, by far, the better of their contest last weekend against Middlesex at Derby with the Peakites enforcing the following-on before Middlesex batted out the final day. Glamorgan are currently in eighth spot with 15 points from their three games with Sam Northeast and his team looking to bounce back after their defeat a fortnight ago against Middlesex at Lord’s.
The game between the two counties last summer at Sophia Gardens ended in a draw after Glamorgan had set Derbyshire a target of 401 to win. Their dominant position was the result of some probing bowling by the Glamorgan attack in the Peakites first innings, plus 126 by Chris Cooke in the Welsh county’s second innings. But after the home team had made early inroads, bad light plus a band of squally showers interrupted play before an unbroken stand of 146 in 49 overs between Brooke Guest and Luis Reece saw their team to safety.
The match in 2023 at Cardiff between Glamorgan and Derbyshire – during the final week of September – had also ended in a draw with Colin Ingram top-scoring with 82 whilst Luis Reece scored a hundred in each innings, emulating what he had also done at Derby earlier in the summer against Glamorgan as he become the first-ever batter in county history to score four successive hundreds in a season against the same opponents.
The Welsh county had secured an emphatic innings victory in 2022 when they welcomed Derbyshire to Cardiff with David Lloyd – now with the Peakites - scoring an unbeaten 313 as his team posted 550-5 before declaring. A five-wicket haul by Kiwi spinner Ajaz Patel saw Derbyshire follow-on 297 runs in arrears before a stand of 128 in 37.5 overs between Wayne Madsen and Leus du Plooy steadied Derbyshire’s second innings. Their stand ended when James Harris, during an exemplary post-lunch spell, saw Madsen chop a short ball onto his stumps, before Glamorgan took the new ball with Michael Hogan ending the contest as Timm van der Gugten caught Sam Conners on the long-leg boundary.
Derbyshire's most recent win at Sophia Gardens came in 2017 when they defeated Glamorgan by 39 runs. Their most recent victory overall came last summer at Derby when they won by ten wickets - this was their 49th success oout of 139 first-class matches against the Welsh county with Glamorgan having won 32.
As far as personal milestones are concerned for Glamorgan’s players, Sam Northeast requires a further 53 runs to reach the landmark of 3,000 first-class runs for the Welsh county.