Glamorgan play their final match of the 2023 season as they welcome Derbyshire to Sophia Gardens for the closing contest in the LV=Insurance County Championship with the four-day game scheduled to start at 1030 on Tuesday, 26 September. (writes Andrew Hignell)
The Welsh county secured an emphatic innings victory last year when they welcomed the Peakites to Cardiff with David Lloyd scoring an unbeaten and record-breaking 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.
Having played Glamorgan at Swansea in both 2018 and 2019, last year’s match at Cardiff had been Derbyshire’s first visit to the Sophia Gardens ground for a Championship match since 2017 when the two teams were involved in a day-night contest as the game's authorities briefly experimented with floodlights and pink balls in four-day cricket. The Peakites duly won by 39 runs as Glamorgan, chasing a target of 212 were dismissed for 172 as their batters struggled against the wily spin bowling of Sri Lanka’s Jeevan Mendis and teenage debutant Hamidullah Qadri, now with Kent, who took 5/60 on his first appearance in Championship cricket.
This year’s game with Derbyshire will go down in the history books as Sue Redfern will become the first female umpire to stand in a men’s first-class match in England and Wales. The 45 year-old former England Women’s international was one of the umpires last year in Glamorgan’s List A match against Hampshire at The Gnoll, whilst earlier this year, she officiated at Eastnor Castle when the Welsh county met Herefordshire in the National County showcase fixture ahead of the Metro Bank One-Day Cup.