In part two of his fascinating series on the county’s ‘fast men’, Barry M Marsden looks at the key men who brought championship success to Derbyshire in the thirties.
IN CRICKETING TERMS, the 1930s can be seen as Derbyshire’s decade, the period when the painstakingly built-up team climbed the Championship table to take the trophy in 1936 and remain a force until the outbreak of war. The county’s success was based on its bowling strength, with a triumvirate of fast bowlers backed up by the leg-spin wizardry of Tommy Mitchell and the off-breaks of Les Townsend. The batsmen usually made enough runs for the bowlers to play with, and Derbyshire were often complimented on their attractive cricket, regularly pursuing victory despite the possibility of defeat…