Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1879 was the ninth season of first-class cricket played by Derbyshire County Cricket Club, an English county club founded in 1870 and based at the County Ground, Derby. The team was captained by Robert Smith (R. P. Smith), in what was his fourth year in the role.
Background and fixtures
During the 1879 season Derbyshire played seven first-class matches. Six were county fixtures, comprising two matches each against Lancashire, Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire. The seventh was a first-class match against Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). Relative to the previous season, the club continued to meet Lancashire, Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire but did not play Hampshire or Kent. In addition to these first-class games, Derbyshire played three other matches: an internal fixture against a 22-man "Derbyshire Colts" side, a match against the Harrow Wanderers, and a fixture at Bacup contested by a "Derbyshire XI" drawn largely from the county team.
Results
Derbyshire's first-class record for the season was two wins and five defeats. Both victories came against Yorkshire. The club lost both matches to Lancashire, both to Nottinghamshire, and the opening fixture against MCC.
The results were as follows:
- 26 May, versus MCC at Lord's — lost by 15 runs.
- 5 June, versus Lancashire at Old Trafford — lost by 7 wickets.
- 23 June, versus Lancashire at the County Ground, Derby — lost by 4 wickets.
- 10 July, versus Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge — lost by an innings and 99 runs.
- 14 July, versus Yorkshire at Bramall Lane, Sheffield — won by 27 runs.
- 4 August, versus Yorkshire at the County Ground, Derby — won by an innings and 2 runs.
- 18 August, versus Nottinghamshire at the County Ground, Derby — lost by an innings and 15 runs.
Notable events
In the match against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge on 10 July, Derbyshire were dismissed for a first-innings total of 16, which remains the club's record for the lowest innings total in its history. Nottinghamshire's bowler Fred Morley, the leading wicket-taker in the English season, was the principal bowler in that match, taking seven wickets in each Derbyshire innings. Lancashire and Nottinghamshire shared the Champion County award for 1879.
Players and statistics
Thomas Foster was the county's leading run-scorer, with 269 runs in 13 innings at an average of 20.69 and a highest score of 68. William Mycroft was the leading wicket-taker, claiming 48 wickets for Derbyshire at an average of 9.08, with best innings figures of 7 for 33; he took a further 40 wickets for other sides during the season, for a total of 88 first-class wickets. Alfort Smith kept wicket and recorded 10 catches and 3 stumpings.
Several players made their first-class debuts for the club in 1879, including William Wood-Sims, Joseph Marlow and George Osborne, all of whom went on to play in later seasons. Arthur Cursham joined from Nottinghamshire and played for two seasons. Arthur Wood and Ralph Docker each played their only two first-class matches for Derbyshire in this season. Joseph Flint, who had first appeared for the club in 1872, and Enoch Cook, who had joined the previous year, each played their final first-class matches for Derbyshire in 1879. Conrad Wallroth, who had appeared in the previous season, played three first-class matches; he also appeared for the opposing Harrow Wanderers in the club's non-first-class fixture against that side.
Sources
The season is documented in cricket records and statistics, including first-class scorecards and averages maintained by cricket archives and summarised in reference works on Derbyshire County Cricket Club.
