Just wanted to rub our Yorkshire members noses in a bit lol. We beat Yorkshire by 6 wickets in the 1-dayer @ Queen’s Park, @ Chesterfield today. Yorks batted first and were 109-2 in the 21st over, but collapsed to 234-7 at the end of the innings. Derbyshire didn’t start well 2 runs in the first two overs. By the end of the 9th over we were 89-0. We stuggled a bit then, but ended up 235-4 after about 28/9 overs with Martin Guptill 100 not out. Bloody superb performance to say we are the perrenial whipping boys of English cricket. Now we face a very tough test starting Wednesday, with a 4 day test match against Northamptonshire, who are top of the league. If we win that we could be in the promotion places. Even if we don’t we’ll definately not finish bottom this year, so a damn good improvement over the last 140 years lol. Stefan

Come on Derbyshire! Dublin lost to Tipperary today in All-Ireland hurling semifinal after epic battle, but it was the first time since 1938 Dublin made it so far.

my brother loves the cricket . he plays for the british dominion here in so cal the team is mostly brits and indians . i think he even had one game for ireland years ago /

@Allan & @jpsks thank you lads, I notice @ermtony and @snuffhead are being quiet ;-). @Allan, I’ve never watched Irish sports but would like to. They don’t show it on English Sky/normal telly. I know a few Irish folk and they love Hurling and Gaelic sports, but to be honest I’ve got to do research on what the sports actually involve. I’ve been to a few Manx Gaelic games but forgot the names, and sport. Was a good afternoon out, I believe that was a Manx version of Hurling, it was between Laxey and I believe Peel, who as places go don’t like each other much lol, was entertaining. The closest I’ve ever got to Ireland is the IOM, but would like to go to Ireland if it wasn’t so expensive. The landlady at my local is Irish, and went back just before Xmas and then even the cheapest beer was over £4 a pint. I mean ffs when you need £75 for a night out it is time to pack up. I believe they went to County Cork. Stefan

There’s part of me that wants to learn what the rules of cricket are. Then there’s another part that thinks it’s an inside joke for the UK and Commonwealth countries where they just make up the rules as they go, and watch the rest of the world scratch their heads in confusion.

@ Sefan, ermtony is away on holiday, and I’m to busy on here declining bots trying to join this site to advertises porn. LOL!

Now, now John we all know you are crying into your beer lol ;-). Stefan

Stefan…the last time I Watched the game was in the days of Lydsly Asset, Richy Benno, Lock & Lacker. And ofcouse Freedy Trueman.

Some excellent players there John, wish I could’ve seen them in the flesh. Tony, gone anywhere nice? Hope he’s having better weather than we are here, its peeing it down @tm. Stefan

I think it was Brian Close on TV last night. said: too many coarches. In his day just a manager.

Love the sports talk, even when I have no idea what you all are going on about. But competitive sports in genereal–so clean, in that there are rules, and a contest, and then a winner. Then another contest and perhaps a different winner. So unlike so much else in “life”. One can’t bs one’s way to victory in sports (unlike politics, business, the arts . . . .) That’s why cheating (ie.doping) is so effed-up. Someday, perhaps, I’ll take the time to get to learn the rules of cricket. Sir Mick likes it, I know that. (These OT comments written by an American artist)

I prefer grasshoppers…

@ Stefan - I’ve been in Cornwall, the usual school holiday looking after the grandkids routine. As for the cricket, it has never interested me. Football neither for that matter.

@Tony ah right, hope you had a good time. Went to Day 1 of the test match today vs Northants. They were 267 all out and at close of play we were 116-4. Looks pretty intresting at the minute you couldn’t put a fag paper between them. Stefan

@ermtony: Amen, brother. Never “got” sports. I wish more men would admit to that, but it seems to be a masculinity complex issue. Although I do love cylcling, but never had interest in racing. (I will admit to having taken an interest in Celtic sports but more from a cultural aspect; also curling in the Olympics gave some inspiration last year.) Most athletics dervive from military tactics, which as you know, is far more interesting.

Day 2 @ Queen’s Park: DISASTER!!! We started off on 116-4, all I’ll say is we collapsed and were all out for 190, in 21 overs ffs! That meant that Northants were 77 in front. They batted for the rest of the day and at close of play it was 285-6. Which means they have a 362 run lead and still 4 wickets to go. All we can hope for now is for 2 days of rain so we get a draw. If not we will be thrashed, plain and simple. Not good :-(. Stefan

Hilarious, Stefan – I have no idea what any of it means, but I think I’m understanding that Derbyshire is on the ropes? (I’m now a Derbyshire fan, btw. Pronounced “Darbyshire”, right?)

Good to see a cricket fan Stefan. Don’t get to go as much as I used to, but I’m a pretty keen cricketer (Lancashire being my county), and play for my local team. I prefer to watch the test cricket though, the England vs India match has been a very good match from an English point of view!

In the name of everything that’s holy everybody do a rain dance! Top and bottom of it is that we need 205 runs to win, and only have 2 wickets left. Oh dear! @least_weasel to say we are on the ropes is an understatement lol, and yes Derbyshire is pronounced “Darbyshire”. @dan the series with India has been brilliant, India despite statistics were no way the best team in the world, we’ve made them look like amateurs. Either that or it just shows how absolutely BRILLIANT we are! Stefan

I know I would like sports if my close friend was on the team. This doesn’t happen so to me most sports are just boring.

@bob my closest friend coaches and played soccer forever. I get tired of hearing him go on about it.

I don’t mean everyday I could care.

I forgot to update you all. In the test match against Northants we lost by 205 runs, a complete thrashing. In the 1 dayer against Middlesex yesterday we lost by 34 runs. All in all not a good week for the Chesterfield “Festival of Cricket”, a bit of a dissapointment but an entertaining one. Stefan

Went to see Gloucestershire in a 4-dayer against Essex earlier in the season. Think it’s pretty sad that they charge £15 for a day’s play. There were only 200-odd people there and most of those were members. Perhaps Glos. would win a few games if they could get a decent crowd through the gates!

@brig it’s £15 a day at Derbys too. They had a special discount ticket for the games in Chesterfield, £50 for 6 days. As for attendances against Yorks there was nearly 4000 there, at most of the days vs Northants there was about 400ish, and against Middx there was about 2500 there. Don’t know the official figures just my guesses. Stefan

Dublin made the gaelic football finals yesterday first time since 1995 by beating Donegal 0-9 to 0-6 and we’re playing Kerry in the finals, like so many times in back in 70’s. Great!

@AllanH I’ve been intrigued by the Gaelic sports for some time. We get the Ulster football championship on the Beeb and occasionally some Scottish shinty (the game all the Gaelic kids in my school used to play!)

@Walrus1985 I’m sure you’re immensely pleased that Yorkshire have been relegated in the LVCC Will be watching your final game against Surrey very closely. Would be nice if at least one of the London teams stays down next year (The Oval is much easier to get to for away games than bloody Northampton!) Having said that, 400-8 at stumps on the first day isn’t hugely encouraging!

Haha, Dublin won the GAA football championship yesterday, and with Ireland’s win over Australia saturday morning, sports weekend was perfect. Cheers to all hungover sports fans!

@brig yes I am delighted that Yorks. were relegated, I look forward to some interesting Derby matches next year. I was also impressed by the fact that Derbys. didn’t finish bottom. Hopefully we can go for a top 3 finish next year. Also 3 of my local football teams are having mixed seasons. Alfreton Town are having a nightmare start to their first, (and probably only unfortunately), season in the Conference National. Their rise has been meteoric, and probably a little too fast. Chesterfield FC, my local professional team, (also my first love footy wise, but waaaaaaayyy too expensive to go now, that’s why I follow a non league team.),have finally kick started their season, after winning League Two last year. And my team, that I am a member of and season ticket holder of, Sheffield FC, the oldest club in the world, are doing fantastic. We are top of the league, 1 point clear. Lovely, jubbly! Stefan

Very good, Stefan. Nice to see local sports appreciated.

@allan I only support local clubs. I tell you something round here we must have the biggest concentration of Man U, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea fans per capita anywhere. Thing is most of these folks who “support” these clubs have never seen a football match in the flesh, and if they have it certainly isn’t the club they suposedly “support”. Glory hunters really piss me off. Stefan

@Walrus Interested to hear that you’re a Sheffield FC fan. The closest we have age-wise in Scotland is Queen’s Park FC (est. 1867). They are 100% amateur and in the bottom division of the league, and yet they both own and play at Hampden Park (where the national team plays). The stadium has a capacity of 52000, but they’re lucky to attract 500+ to their home games. Hilarious stuff.

@brig I think, although I could be mistaken, that SFC played Queen’s Park for SFC’s 100th anniversary in 1957. For SFC’s 150th 4 years ago we played Inter Milan, and Ajax at Bramall Lane, Sheffield United’s home ground. Stefan

Here in the states there’s a (american) football team–the Dallas Cowboys–that started to call itself “America’s Team” back in the 70s or 80s. Sickening, to me at least, partly because I’m a NY Giant fan, and we play in the same division. Anyway, there’s at least one other team–the Pittsburgh Steelers–who arguably could/should own that title of “America’s Team”. There’s a story that the owner of the Steelers, upon being asked his feelings about the “America’s Team” label, replied something like, “We don’t want that. We’re Pittsburgh’s team.” Pretty cool, I think.