It is exactly 45 years since Darley Dale’s riverside cricket ground staged its one and only Derbyshire match – and it was televised live across the nation. Barrie Farnsworth reports.
UNLIKE the current season, which has been severely hit by the pandemic, 1975 was quite a summer for first-class cricket in Derbyshire. On June 2 that year, Derbyshire made cricket history when snow stopped play at Buxton in their County Championship match against Lancashire. And on September 7, precisely 45 years ago, around 6,000 people packed into Darley Dale CC’s ground for what must have been the biggest event in the club’s 157-year history… a televised John Player League 40-over match which saw Hampshire clinch the 1975 title with a 70-run victory over Derbyshire…