Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1919 was the first

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 after a four-year break from first class cricket during World War I. 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 ...

had been playing for forty-eight years with their twenty first season in the

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...

being notable that they won three matches in the County Championship to come ninth.

1919 season

After the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, county cricket resumed in 1919 but everyone connected with the game had to put in much effort to create a very basic competition. Matches were restricted to two days to begin with, but the experiment was not repeated.W.T. Taylor ''History of Derbyshire cricket Wisden'' 1953
/ref> Derbyshire played 14 matches in the County Championship and one against the Australian Imperial Forces. Derbyshire struggled to create a team, drawing in several youngsters, and also calling upon players who had last represented the club years previously. As a result, they managed three wins in the County Championship and four matches altogether - their particular accomplishment was to defeat the Australian Imperial Forces XI, Derbyshire being the only county side to do so.

Richard Baggallay Sir Richard Baggallay Privy Council of the United Kingdom, PC (1816 – 1888) was a British barrister, politician, and judge. After serving as Attorney General for England and Wales, Attorney-General under Benjamin Disraeli from 1874 to 1875, ...

had been the last captain before the war and he led the team in the resumption of the game although he only played in three matches. John Chapman was the most frequent substitute. Leonard Oliver was top scorer and

Billy Bestwick William Bestwick (24 February 1875 – 2 May 1938) was an English cricketer who played for Derbyshire between 1898 and 1926. He was a medium-fast bowler who took over 1,400 wickets for the county, including 10 in one innings. From his wild tem ...

took most wickets with 89. Bestwick had made his debut for Derbyshire in 1898; he had not played for them since 1909 and had a reputation for unreliability on account of taste for beer. He was brought back into the team in 1919 at the age of 43, with Arthur Morton as his minder. Although it was thought he would be past first-class cricket his capability surprised everybody. The 36 runs victory over the Australians was achieved without Bestwick, who, was making his first appearance for the Players against the Gentlemen at Lord's. James Horsley managed a hat-trick, and with Arthur Morton shared nineteen wickets in the two Australian innings. George Beet stepped in behind the stumps, bridging the gap between the stalwarts

Joe Humphries Joseph Humphries (19 May 1876 – 7 May 1946) was an English cricketer who played three Test matches for England in Australia in 1907–08 and played first-class cricket for Derbyshire and the Marylebone Cricket Club between 1899 and 1914. Hu ...

and Harry Elliott. The season marked the beginning of

Guy Jackson Guy Rolf Jackson (23 June 1896 – 21 February 1966) was an English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Derbyshire between 1919 and 1936, being captain for nine years. Jackson was born at Ankerbold, Tupton, Derbyshire, the son of Brig ...

's long association with the club. Other new players included the Hill-Woods -

Basil Basil (, ; ''Ocimum basilicum'' , also called great basil, is a culinary herb of the family Lamiaceae (mints). It is a tender plant, and is used in cuisines worldwide. In Western cuisine, the generic term "basil" refers to the variety also kno ...

and

Wilfred Wilfred may refer to: * Wilfred (given name), a given name and list of people (and fictional characters) with the name * Wilfred, Indiana, an unincorporated community in the United States * ''Wilfred'' (Australian TV series), a comedy series * ' ...

, Arthur Severn, Louis Flint,

Geoffrey Bell Geoffrey L Bell, who was born in 1939, is an economist, banker, and Executive Secretary of the Washington-based Group of Thirty, a council of private and central bankers. Born in Grimsby, he was educated at the London School of Economics, before ...

and William Malthouse. In addition George Ratcliffe made his single appearance for Derbyshire against the Australians, and John Dunlop Southern made the first of his occasional appearances, also against the Australians.

Matches

Statistics

County Championship batting averages

County Championship bowling averages

Wicket Keeper

G Beet Catches 25, Stumping 7

Derbyshire County Cricketers in the Great War

Casualties

Frank Bingham Frank Miller Bingham (17 September 1874 – 22 May 1915) was an English medical doctor, all round sportsman and army officer who was killed in the First World War. As a cricketer, he played for Derbyshire in 1896. Life and cricket career Bing ...

played one match for

in the 1896 season He was a doctor and an enthusiastic Territorial Army officer, and in the First World War served as a combatant rather than as a military doctor. He was a lieutenant in the 5th Battalion,

King's Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster) The King's Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army. It served under various titles and fought in many wars and conflicts, including both the First and the Second World Wars, from 1680 to 1959. In 1959, the r ...

and became a captain in 1914 and commanded a

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of people, whether Natural person, natural, Legal person, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common p ...

. He took part in the

Second Battle of Ypres During the First World War, the Second Battle of Ypres was fought from for control of the tactically important high ground to the east and south of the Flemish town of Ypres in western Belgium. The First Battle of Ypres had been fought the pre ...

and was killed on 22 May 1915 on a reconnaissance mission after stopping to dig a man out of a collapsed trench. He is commemorated on the

Menin Gate The Menin Gate ( nl, Menenpoort), officially the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing, is a war memorial in Ypres, Belgium, dedicated to the British and Commonwealth soldiers who were killed in the Ypres Salient of World War I and whose graves a ...

. *

Geoffrey Jackson Sir Geoffrey Holt Seymour Jackson (4 March 1915 – 1 October 1987) was a British diplomat and writer. Background and earlier career Jackson received his education at Bolton School and Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He entered the Foreign Serv ...

played for

from 1912 to 1914, and for

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

in 1914. He was given a commission in the

Rifle Brigade The Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own) was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army formed in January 1800 as the "Experimental Corps of Riflemen" to provide sharpshooters, scouts, and skirmishers. They were soon renamed the "Rifle ...

on the outbreak of World War I and went to France in October, 1914. He was invalided home, after the

, suffering from gas poisoning and spent some months in England serving his Reserve Battalion. He returned to France, as

Adjutant Adjutant is a military appointment given to an officer who assists the commanding officer with unit administration, mostly the management of human resources in an army unit. The term is used in French-speaking armed forces as a non-commission ...

of the 1st Battalion, in December, 1915, and was

Mentioned in Despatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches, MiD) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face ...

on 1 January 1916. He served continuously until his death on 9 April 1917 at the Battle of Arras. He was mortally wounded by a piece of shell after advancing about 6000 yards, and died at Faimpoux, Arras, Belgium before reaching the dressing station. *

Charles Newcombe Charles Neil Newcombe (16 March 1891 – 27 December 1915) was an English cricketer and footballer who played first-class cricket for Derbyshire in 1910 and played for a number of football clubs, including Glossop, Chesterfield Town, Manchester ...

played one first-class cricket match for

in 1910, and also played league football for Chesterfield F. C. and Rotherham Town. He served in the

in the 7th Bn

King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry The King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (KOYLI) was a light infantry regiment of the British Army. It officially existed from 1881 to 1968, but its predecessors go back to 1755. In 1968, the regiment was amalgamated with the Somerset and Cornwall ...

as a lieutenant and was killed in action at Fleuraix in France on 27 December 1915. He was buried at Y Farm Military Cemetery,

Bois-Grenier Bois-Grenier () is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. Located south of Armentières and bordering with the department of Pas-de-Calais. Population Heraldry See also *Communes of the Nord department The following is a ...

* Guy Wilson played one first class match for

in 1902 and one in 1905. He was killed in action during the Battle of Cambrai on 30 November 1917.

Awards

* RRC Baggallay served in the

Irish Guards The Irish Guards (IG), is one of the Foot Guards regiments of the British Army and is part of the Guards Division. Together with the Royal Irish Regiment, it is one of the two Irish infantry regiments in the British Army. The regiment has parti ...

and was successively captain and major, seeing service at the Somme and Ypres. He was mentioned in despatches and awarded D.S.O. and M.C. in 1919. * GR Jackson served as a captain at

Salonica Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...

in January 1918,and was awarded the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC i ...

. He was also mentioned in despatches twice and also won the French Legion d’Honneur and the Greek Military Cross. Jackson was leading his troops on patrol when some

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

n soldiers approached, carrying a flag of truce. They were asking for the armistice which was to end Bulgaria’s part in the First World War.Bygone Derbyshire ''Derbyshire County Cricket Club's new dawn''
/ref> * GF Bell won the

References

{{Derbyshire County Cricket Club 1919 in English cricket Derbyshire County Cricket Club seasons English cricket seasons in the 20th century