Queen's Park is a

county cricket Inter-county cricket matches have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Two county championship competitions have existed since the late 19th century at ...

ground located in Chesterfield,

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and lies within a park in the centre of the town established for the

Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria The Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria was celebrated on 20 and 21 June 1887 to mark the Golden jubilee, 50th anniversary of Queen Victoria's accession on 20 June 1837. It was celebrated with a National service of thanksgiving, Thanksgiving Serv ...

in 1887. It has a small pavilion and is surrounded by mature trees. The park is the home of Chesterfield CC and also played home to

Derbyshire CCC Derbyshire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Derbyshire. Its limited overs team is called the Derbyshire Falcon ...

for 100 years between 1898 and 1998, before the county team returned in 2006 after an 8-year absence. It was at one time surrounded by a banked cycle track. It is a small ground and slow to dry after rain, which can provide a green wicket. The size of the ground however, lends itself to rapid scoring on good wickets.

History

In 1886, the then Mayor of Chesterfield proposed that a public park be created to mark Queen Victoria's upcoming golden jubilee in 1887. However, it took the Local Government Board a further six years to agree on costs and the park was eventually opened to the public on 2 August 1893. Chesterfield Cricket Club was granted exclusive use of the ground in February 1894, and the first game was played there on 5 May 1894. There was an unusual incident during the

County Championship The County Championship, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Rothesay County Championship, is the only domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales. Established in 1890, it is organised by the England and Wales Cri ...

match between Derbyshire and

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

in mid-1946. After two overs were bowled in the Derbyshire first innings, Yorkshire captain

Len Hutton Sir Leonard Hutton (23 June 1916 – 6 September 1990) was an English cricketer. He played as an Batting order (cricket)#Opening batsmen, opening batsman for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1934 to 1955 and for England national cricket team ...

asked for the length of the pitch to be measured. It was found to be 24 yards long, instead of the regulation 22 yards. The pitch was correctly reset, and the game continued.

The return of county cricket

After a century of

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

at Chesterfield between 1898 and 1998, the next seven seasons saw Derbyshire play no first-class or List A matches on the ground, although the

Marylebone Cricket Club The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's, Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London, England. The club was the governing body of cricket from 1788 to 1989 and retain ...

played a first class match against the touring Sri Lanka team in 2002. However, following a multimillion-pound refurbishment and upgrade of the entire park including the cricketing facilities, Derbyshire returned by taking on

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...

in a

Division Two game between 26 and 29 July. The game ended in a draw, with Australian

Marcus North Marcus James North (born 28 July 1979) is a former Australian first-class cricketer who played 21 Test matches and two One Day Internationals (ODIs) for the Australian national side. Born in Melbourne, North grew up in Western Australia, att ...

avoiding defeat for the home side by scoring 161 runs, including 24 boundaries. Attendances for all four days was high, and saw Derbyshire announce a four-year deal to play County Cricket at the ground soon after the game. The Sunday then saw a visit from a star-studded Surrey Brown Caps side and despite a heavy loss, a large crowd were treated to some entertainment by Surrey batsman Ali Brown who scored 106 from just 68 deliveries.

2007 festival

The 2007 festival was scheduled to run from 25 to 29 July and would have consisted of a four-day

game against

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

and the

Pro40 The NatWest Pro40 League was a one-day cricket league for first-class cricket counties in England and Wales. It was inaugurated in 1999, but was essentially the old Sunday League retitled to reflect large numbers of matches being played on da ...

opener against

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

. Both of these matches were moved to Derbyshire's regular ground in

Derby Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...

due to the Queen's Park ground being waterlogged. Instead, the festival began with the Pro40 game against Durham on 4 September and saw Durham win convincingly by seven wickets. The festival continued with the County Championship game against

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...

from 6 to 9 September, where Nottinghamshire won by an innings and six runs inside three days. Nottinghamshire skipper

Stephen Fleming Stephen Paul Fleming (born 1 April 1973) is a cricket coach and former captain of the New Zealand national cricket team. He was a left-handed Batting order (cricket), opening batter and an occasional right arm slow medium bowler. He is New Zea ...

helped the visitors to the win, scoring 243 runs, including 40 fours.

First-class records at Queen's Park

Notation

;Team notation * 300-3 indicates that a team scored 300 runs for three

wicket In the sport of cricket, the term wicket has several meanings: * It is either of the two sets of three Stump (cricket), stumps and two Bail (cricket), bails at each end of the Cricket pitch, pitch. The Fielding (cricket), fielding team's playe ...

s and the innings was closed, either due to a successful run chase or if no playing time remained. * 300-3d indicates that a team scored 300 runs for three wickets, and declared its innings closed. * 300 indicates that a team scored 300 runs and was all out. ;Batting notation * 100 indicates that a batsman scored 100 runs and was

out Out or OUT may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films *Out (1957 film), ''Out'' (1957 film), a documentary short about the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 *Out (1982 film), ''Out'' (1982 film), an American film directed by Eli Hollander *O ...

. * 100* indicates that a batsman scored 100 runs and was

not out In cricket, a batsman is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batsman is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at ...

. * 100* against a partnership means that the two batsmen added 100 runs to the team's total, and neither of them was out. ;Bowling notation * 5-100 indicates that a bowler captured 5 wickets while conceding 100 runs.

Team scoring records

Batting records

Bowling records

*Highest attendance – 14,000 v. Yorkshire, 1948

References

External links

Derbyshire County Cricket Club Official Website
{{coord, 53, 13, 58, N, 1, 25, 57, W, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title Cricket grounds in Derbyshire 1898 establishments in England Chesterfield, Derbyshire Sports venues completed in 1898 Grade II* listed parks and gardens in Derbyshire Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria