Dave Allen: Knock Out Cups v Derbyshire

2022 is the 60^th season of single innings, limited-overs matches between first-class counties. Over those years the matches, always scheduled for one day but sometimes extended or shortened by weather, have been contested over various formats with overs consisting of 65, 60, 55, 50, 45 or 40 per side. They were the first regular county competitions to carry the names of sponsors of which there have been many. Despite all these variations the matches are together known as List A to distinguish them from first-class or Twenty 20 games.

We have not played Derbyshire that often in the knock-out cups but two games stand out as among the most significant in our history. The first was in May 1963 at Bournemouth, the first match we ever played in the new cup competition sponsored by Gillette. We lost that game by just six runs which was the end of cup matches for that season since it was straight knock-out contest. Having departed after just one match that proved to be the only game we ever played of 65 overs per side. By the following year it was reduced to 60, now of course it is 50. Our star on that first day was Mike Barnard who was last out for 98 with three balls remaining.

The second significant game came exactly 25 years later when we were the last of the original 17 first-class counties to reach a Lord’s Final. This was in the old B&H Cup (55 overs) and having got there we won quite comfortably as Mark Nicholas and his side brought home the trophy. The outstanding performance was by South African left-arm pace bowler Steven Jefferies who took 5-13 in his 10 overs, reducing Derbyshire from 27-0 to 117 all out. Robin Smith hit a sparkling 38 from 27 balls and captain Mark Nicholas and ‘senior pro’ David Turner were together when we won by seven wickets.

Back to the beginning, and after our debut in 1963 we had to wait eleven years to meet Derbyshire again, beating them by nine wickets in the Gillette Cup but then in 1975 they beat us in the B&H Cup, Mike Hendrick taking 4-17 in ten overs (Turner 51). Three months later we reversed the result in a Gillette Cup quarter-final (Sainsbury 63 and 4-49).

There were victories for Derbyshire at Derby in 1979, for Hampshire there in 1980 (Jesty 118) and for Hampshire at Southampton in 1982 despite a Kirsten century (Greenidge 83). Fewer than three weeks after our first Lord’s success in 1988, we were back at Derby to win a Nat West quarter-final by four wickets (Terry 67) – it led to another semi-final defeat.

In 2014 we met them for the first, and so far only time in the Royal London Cup, at Derby where Wes Durston (134) and Wayne Masden (138) took them to 340-5 in 50 overs. In reply Vince and Carberry opened with 52 in the sixth over but from 103, Hampshire lost nine wickets for 101 and with that, the match.

Since then, our only trip to Derby was in the T20 quarter-final of 2017 when Shahid Afridi’s century took us to victory by 101 runs and another Edgbaston Finals Day. From the RL Cup matches played so far in 2022 it seems likely that Hampshire-born Harry Came, who played a few games for us in 2020, will be in the Derbyshire line-up. We might wish him well – but not too well!