Derbyshire '˜committed' to Queen's Park despite washout

Derbyshire remain 'committed' to staging first-class cricket at Chesterfield despite another blank day in the Division Two match against Kent.
Queens Park cricket pitch which was supposed to host Derbyshire and Kent but the match was abandoned due to a wet outfield.Queens Park cricket pitch which was supposed to host Derbyshire and Kent but the match was abandoned due to a wet outfield.
Queens Park cricket pitch which was supposed to host Derbyshire and Kent but the match was abandoned due to a wet outfield.

Although Queen’s Park was bathed in warm sunshine, the outfield was still too wet in places for play to start for the second day running.

The announcement was greeted by boos from spectators and with more rain forecast for Wednesday night, the prospects already look bleak for the remaining two days.

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Last year, no play was possible in the game against Northants at Chesterfield but Derbyshire chief executive Simon Storey said they would still take matches to the picturesque park ground in the future.

“I think we clearly need to look at how we get the best out of Queen’s Park but we are always going to be committed to an out-ground that has been part of our history for over 100 years,” he said.

“We just need to look and see what we need to do to make sure we can give games the best possible chance of going ahead.”

Derbyshire successfully staged a County Championship match against Durham at Chesterfield and a T20 game with Yorkshire in July and Storey added: “A huge amount of progress has been made from last season when we lost the festival.

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“Apart from our four day game and a very successful T20 match against Yorkshire, Chesterfield cricket club and the council have also hosted here two Women’s World Cup warm-up games and an under-19s Test match.

“There’s been an extraordinary amount of rain in the last couple of weeks and it really poured down on Monday night and that has put paid to cricket on Tuesday and now Wednesday.”

The current game against Kent was scheduled to have been played at Derby but was moved because of concerns that a pop concert held at the County Ground on Saturday night could have damaged the ground.

Storey said: “Cricket always comes first and the reason we do concerts and other events is to imporve the team on the field and whenever we do events, any profit we make goes back into the cricket.”