Queen's Park is a

county cricket Inter-county cricket matches are known to have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Since the late 19th century, there have been two county championship ...

ground located in

Chesterfield Chesterfield may refer to: Places Canada * Rural Municipality of Chesterfield No. 261, Saskatchewan * Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom * Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a market town in England ** Chesterfield (UK Parliament constitue ...

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 ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and lies within a park in the centre of the town established for Queen Victoria's golden jubilee 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 Falcons ...

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 (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 ...

match between Derbyshire and

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

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 opening batsman for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1934 to 1955 and for England in 79 Test matches between 1937 and 1955. ''Wisden Cricketer ...

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 one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

at Chesterfield between 1898 and 1998, the next seven seasons saw Derbyshire play no first-class or List A matches on the ground. 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 county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

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 cricket, Test matches and two One Day Internationals (ODIs) for the Australia national cricket team, Australian national side. Born in Melbo ...

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 Alistair Duncan Brown (born 11 February 1970), commonly known as Ali Brown, is a former English cricketer who played for Surrey County Cricket Club, before moving to Nottinghamshire for the 2009 season. He was nicknamed "Lordy", in allusion to ...

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 Liverpool Victoria County Championship game against

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

and the NatWest Pro 40 opener against Kent Spitfires. Both of these matches were moved to Derbyshire's regular ground in

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...

due to the Queen's Park ground being waterlogged. Instead, the festival began with the NatWest Pro 40 game against

Durham Dynamos Durham County Cricket Club (rebranded as Durham Cricket in February 2019) is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Durham. Founded in 1882, Du ...

on 4th September and saw Durham win convincingly by seven wickets. The festival continued with the Liverpool Victoria County Championship game against

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 ...

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 New Zealand cricket coach and former captain of the New Zealand national cricket team, who is the current head coach of Indian Premier League team Chennai Super Kings. He is considered one of the g ...

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 cricket, the term wicket has several meanings: * It is one of the two sets of three stumps and two bails at either end of the pitch. The fielding team's players can hit the wicket with the ball in a number of ways to get a batsman out. ...

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

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

. * 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, 57.51, N, 1, 25, 57.44, 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