Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1876 was the

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

season when the English club

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

played their sixth season.

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

replaced

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...

as the third county to play Derbyshire, together with

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

and

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. Derbyshire also played their first match against an MCC side, which was to become a regular feature. Mycroft achieved 17 wickets for 103 runs in a match which remains a record match analysis for Derbyshire. The season was clouded with the death in a railway accident of Frederick Thornhill after just one chance to play for the county.

1876 season

All Derbyshire's matches were first class in the 1876 season. They played six county games, two each against Lancashire, Kent and Hampshire, and one match against MCC. Derbyshire lost both games against Lancashire, but were honours even with Kent and Hampshire, and beat MCC at Lords. The captain for the year was Robert Smith. The side was well established but had three newcomers.

Frederick Keeton Frederick William Keeton (26 October 1855 – 27 November 1911) was an English cricketer who played for Derbyshire between 1876 and 1880. Keeton was born in Mosborough, (then in Derbyshire but now in South Yorkshire) and in 1874 was playing fo ...

, a licensed victualler, played the first of several seasons for Derbyshire and Amos Hind a framework knitter, also made his debut, to play one more season in 1877. Frederick Thornhill, a railway worker, played a single match for the club in June, but a month later on 23 July 1876 died at Toton Sidings, the largest

marshalling yard A classification yard (American and Canadian English (Canadian National Railway use)), marshalling yard (British, Hong Kong, Indian, Australian, and Canadian English (Canadian Pacific Railway use)) or shunting yard (Central Europe) is a railway ya ...

s of the

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It am ...

. Three players who took part in Derbyshire's first match played their last season for Derbyshire, each appearing in one game. These were

Unwin Sowter Unwin Sowter (22 April 1839 – 14 April 1910) was an English corn factor and miller and cricketer who played for Derbyshire between 1871 and 1876. He was a member of the team that played Derbyshire's first match in May 1871. Sowter was born at ...

, John Burnham and John Tilson. In the first match against Lancashire, Lancashire made 163 in their first innings, and Derbyshire replied with 60. They had to follow on, and achieving 78 in the second innings, lost by an innings. In the second match, their first against Hampshire Derbyshire scored 179 in the first innings and Hampshire made 98 in response and had to follow-on. Hampshire scored 156 in the second innings and Derbyshire made the necessary 80 with 8 wickets in hand. Against MCC Derbyshire opened with 229 with a contribution of 77 from Hind. MCC replied with 104 and managed 76 in the follow-on to give Derbyshire an innings victory. Against Kent, Derbyshire scored 107 in the first innings and Kent replied with 121. Derbyshire's second innings score of 170 set a target Kent could not achieve and they finished on 113 to give Derbyshire 43 run victory. In the second match against Lancashire, Derbyshire replied with 63 to Lancashire's 111. In the second innings Lancashire made 172 and Derbyshire ended the second innings 95 runs behind on 125. In the second match against Kent, Derbyshire made 147 in the first innings and Kent made 145. In the second innings Derbyshire made 112, and Kent were able to make the necessary 116 to win the match with two wickets in hand. In the last match against Hampshire, Derbyshire opened with 115 and Hampshire made 63 in reply. In the second innings Derbyshire made 91, but Hampshire went on to make 145 to win with one wicket in hand. Mycroft achieved a record match analysis of 17 wickets for 103 runs against Hampshire in the match. John Platts was top scorer and

William Mycroft William Mycroft (1 February 1841 – 19 June 1894) was an English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Derbyshire and MCC between 1873 and 1886. He was a left-arm fast bowler with a great deal of spin and a dangerous yorker that was ofte ...

took most wickets.

Matches

Statistics

Cricketers who played and their first-class batting performances

Smith played two matches for North v South, two for a United North of England XI v United South of England XI and one for an All England XI, giving him a first-class run total of 327.

First-class bowling averages

Mycroft played five games for MCC, one for an All England XI and one for a United North of England XI bringing his first class wicket total to 95.

Wicket Keeping

* A Smith Catches 13, Stumping 1

References

{{Derbyshire CCC 1876 in English cricket Derbyshire County Cricket Club seasons English cricket seasons in the 19th century