Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1961

Derbyshire County Cricket Club
	1961 season
Captain	Donald Carr
County Championship	7
Most runs	Laurie Johnson
Most wickets	Harold Rhodes
← 1960	1962 →

Last updated March 24, 2019

Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1961 represents cricket season when the English club Derbyshire had been playing for ninety years. It was their fifty-seventh season in the County Championship and they won ten matches to finish seventh in the County Championship.

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a 20-metre (22-yard) pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striking the ball bowled at the wicket with the bat, while the bowling and fielding side tries to prevent this and dismiss each player. Means of dismissal include being bowled, when the ball hits the stumps and dislodges the bails, and by the fielding side catching the ball after it is hit by the bat, but before it hits the ground. When ten players have been dismissed, the innings ends and the teams swap roles. The game is adjudicated by two umpires, aided by a third umpire and match referee in international matches. They communicate with two off-field scorers who record the match's statistical information.

Derbyshire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Derbyshire. Its limited overs team is called the Derbyshire Falcons in reference to the famous peregrine falcon which nests on the Derby Cathedral. Founded in 1870, the club held first-class status from its first match in 1871 until 1887. Because of poor performances and lack of fixtures in some seasons, Derbyshire then lost its status for seven seasons until it was invited into the County Championship in 1895. Derbyshire is also classified as a List A team since the beginning of limited overs cricket in 1963; and classified as a senior Twenty20 team since 2003. In recent years the club has enjoyed record attendances with over 24,000 people watching their home Twenty20 fixtures in 2017 – a record for a single campaign. The local derby versus Yorkshire at Chesterfield now regularly sells out in advance.

The County Championship, currently known as the Specsavers County Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It became an official title in 1890. The competition consists of eighteen clubs named after, and originally representing, historic counties, seventeen from England and one from Wales. From 2016, the Championship has been sponsored by Specsavers, who replaced Liverpool Victoria after 14 years.

1961 season

Derbyshire played 28 games in the County Championship, and one match against Oxford University, one against the touring Australians and an extra match against Nottinghamshire. They won ten matches altogether Donald Carr was in his seventh season as captain. Laurie Johnson was top scorer and Harold Rhodes took most wickets with 101.

Donald Bryce Carr OBE was an English cricketer who played for Derbyshire from 1946 to 1967, for Oxford University from 1948 to 1951, and twice for England in 1951/52. He captained Derbyshire between 1955 and 1962, and scored over 10,000 runs for the county.

Hubert Laurence Johnson is a West Indies born cricketer who played for Derbyshire between 1949 and 1966. He scored over 14,000 runs for the club in the first-class game.

Harold James Rhodes is a former English cricketer who played two Test matches for England in 1959, for Derbyshire between 1953 and 1975, and for the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) between 1959 and 1963. He also played one day matches for Nottinghamshire between 1970 and 1973.

The only new member of the team was Bob Taylor, a future captain and international, who had played in the second XI in the previous year. He was brought in to keep wicket after George Dawkes suffered from knee problems.

Robert William Taylor is an English former cricketer who played as wicket-keeper for Derbyshire between 1961 and 1984 and for England between 1971 and 1984. He made 57 Test, and 639 first-class cricket appearances in total, taking 1,473 catches. The 2,069 victims across his entire career is the most of any wicket-keeper in history. He is considered as one of the world's most accomplished wicket-keepers. He made his first-class debut for Minor Counties against South Africa in 1960, having made his Staffordshire debut in 1958. He became Derbyshire's first choice wicket-keeper when George Dawkes sustained a career-ending injury. His final First Class appearance was at the Scarborough Festival in 1988. He remained first choice until his retirement except for a short period in 1964 when Laurie Johnson was tried as a batsman-wicketkeeper.

George Owen Dawkes was a first-class cricketer who played for Leicestershire between 1937 and 1939 and for Derbyshire between 1947 and 1961 as a wicket keeper and a lower-order right-handed batsman. During the 1949–50 season he toured India with a team of players making up a Commonwealth XI.

Matches

List of matches
No.	Date	V	Result	Margin	Notes
1	26 Apr 1961 ^[1]	Nottinghamshire Trent Bridge, Nottingham	Drawn		Not a county championship match
2	3 May 1961 ^[2]	Australians Queen's Park, Chesterfield	Drawn		Only 22 overs played
3	10 May 1961 ^[3]	Kent County Ground, Derby	Drawn		Sayer 5-48; HJ Rhodes 5-59
4	13 May 1961 ^[4]	Nottinghamshire Trent Bridge, Nottingham	Won	3 wickets	Winfield 109; DB Carr 143
5	17 May 1961 ^[5]	Somerset Recreation Ground, Bath	Won	3 wickets	Wright 102; DC Morgan 5-40
6	20 May 1961 ^[6]	Northamptonshire County Ground, Northampton	Lost	129 runs	Allen 8-48 and 5-50; HJ Rhodes 5-48; E Smith 5-41
7	24 May 1961 ^[7]	Worcestershire County Ground, Derby	Lost	Innings and 15 runs	Coldwell 5-44; Gifford 5-17
8	27 May 1961 ^[8]	Glamorgan Queen's Park, Chesterfield	Lost	14 runs	IR Buxton 6-80
9	3 Jun 1961 ^[9]	Lancashire Old Trafford, Manchester	Lost	109 runs	Grieves 139
10	7 Jun 1961^[10]	Sussex County Ground, Derby	Drawn		IR Buxton 5-52; Thomson 5-54 and 6-46
11	10 Jun 1961 ^[11]	Essex Hoffman's Sports and Social Club Ground, Chelmsford	Drawn		G Smith 148; HL Johnson 119; TJP Eyre 5-75
12	17 Jun 1961 ^[12]	Essex Ind Coope Ground, Burton-on-Trent	Lost	181 runs	Knight 120; HL Jackson 5-30; Bailey 5-27
13	21 Jun 1961 ^[13]	Lancashire Queen's Park, Chesterfield	Won	Innings and 141 runs	HL Jackson 6-15; TJP Eyre 5-40
14	24 Jun 1961 ^[14]	Oxford University Park Road Ground, Buxton	Drawn		HJ Rhodes took a hattrick to finish Oxford's second innings
15	28 Jun 1961 ^[15]	Yorkshire Bramall Lane, Sheffield	Drawn		Trueman 6-60 and 5-63
16	1 Jul 1961 ^[16]	Leicestershire County Ground, Derby	Won	9 wickets	HL Jackson 5-53; Spencer 5-32
17	5 Jul 1961 ^[17]	Gloucestershire Wagon Works Ground, Gloucester	Drawn		HL Johnson 122; A'Court 6-50; Cook 5-41
18	8 Jul 1961 ^[18]	Yorkshire Queen's Park, Chesterfield	Lost	Innings and 18 runs	Stott 114
19	12 Jul 1961 ^[19]	Glamorgan Cardiff Arms Park	Drawn		HJ Rhodes 5-80; Shepherd5-96
20	19 Jul 1961 ^[20]	Warwickshire County Ground, Derby	Won	3 wickets	IR Buxton 5-41 and 5-63; Thompson 5-46 and 5-75
21	22 Jul 1961 ^[21]	Worcestershire Chester Road North Ground, Kidderminster	Lost	185 runs	Headley 103; Coldwell 8-41
22	26 Jul 1961 ^[22]	Middlesex Lord's Cricket Ground, St John's Wood	Won	7 wickets	Parfitt 113; HJ Rhodes 7-74
23	29 Jul 1961 ^[23]	Nottinghamshire Rutland Recreation Ground, Ilkeston	Drawn		DB Carr 130
24	2 Aug 1961 ^[24]	Somerset Queen's Park, Chesterfield	Won	6 wickets	HL Jackson 5-33; Palmer 6-76
25	5 Aug 1961^[25]	Northamptonshire County Ground, Derby	Drawn
26	9 Aug 1961 ^[26]	Leicestershire Grace Road, Leicester	Won	136 runs	HL Johnson 116; Savage 5-81; HJ Rhodes 5-49
27	12 Aug 1961 ^[27]	Hampshire County Ground, Derby	Lost	58 runs	Horton 141; Shackleton 6-90
28	19 Aug 1961 ^[28]	Surrey Queen's Park, Chesterfield	Won	4 wickets	HL Jackson 6-40 and 5-68; Sydenham 5-102
29	23 Aug 1961 ^[29]	Warwickshire Edgbaston, Birmingham	Drawn		Stewart 135; Wright 5-68; Bannister 6-30
30	26 Aug 1961 ^[30]	Sussex Manor Sports Ground, Worthing	Won	65 runs	WF Oates 148; E Smith 5-76
31	30 Aug 1961 ^[31]	Hampshire Dean Park, Bournemouth	Lost	140 runs	HL Johnson 112; Wassell 5-132; Shackleton 6-39

Statistics

County Championship batting averages

Name	Matches	Inns	Runs	High score	Average	100s
HL Johnson	25	46	1594	122	37.95	4
DB Carr	26	47	1559	143	36.25	2
WF Oates	23	41	1259	148*	34.02	1
C Lee	28	53	1415	91	27.74	0
I Gibson	1	2	49	46	24.50	0
DC Morgan	26	45	888	83	22.76	0
GO Dawkes	11	18	342	50	21.37	0
IW Hall	24	45	899	71	20.43	0
IR Buxton	24	41	643	50*	17.86	0
TJP Eyre	8	12	97	33*	16.16	0
E Smith	20	34	432	48	14.89	0
HJ Rhodes	24	37	321	34	14.59	0
GA Beet	2	3	28	17	14.00	0
D Millner	12	24	334	80	13.91	0
R Swallow	6	11	132	34	12.00	0
RW Taylor	17	24	205	48	11.38	0
R Berry	8	10	42	17	7.00	0
GW Richardson	4	6	35	18	5.83	0
HL Jackson	19	21	46	11	3.06	0 ^[32]

County Championship bowling averages

Name	Balls	Runs	Wickets	BB	Average
HJ Rhodes	5582	2024	101	7-74	20.03
IR Buxton	4350	1691	79	6-80	21.40
HL Jackson	4696	1481	78	6-15	18.98
DC Morgan	4203	1744	62	5-40	28.12
E Smith	3543	1412	44	5-41	32.09
TJP Eyre	1358	682	29	5-40	23.51
DB Carr	1088	615	18	3-37	34.16
R Berry	1344	462	14	3-45	33.00
C Lee	684	262	11	2-9	23.81
GW Richardson	384	211	4	2-55	52.75
WF Oates	138	63	2	1-0	31.50
HL Johnson	24	24	1	1-0	24.00
GA Beet	48	42	1	1-42	42.00
D Millner	24	15	0
R Swallow	6	0	0
I Gibson	12	13	0
IW Hall	18	5	0 ^[33]

Wicket Keepers

GO Dawkes Catches 33, Stumping 1 (not in championship)
Bob Taylor Catches 47, Stumping 6

References

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[1] Cricket ArchiveNottinghamshire v Derbyshire 26 Apr 1961

[2] Cricket Archive Derbyshire v Australians 3 May 1961

[3] Cricket Archive Derbyshire v Kent 10 May 1961

[4] Cricket Archive Nottinghamshire v Derbyshire 13 May 1961

[5] Cricket Archive Somerset v Derbyshire 17 May 1961

[6] Cricket Archive Northamptonshire v Derbyshire 20 May 1961

[7] Cricket Archive Derbyshire v Worcestershire 24 May 1961

[8] Cricket Archive Derbyshire v Glamorgan 27 May 1961

[9] Cricket Archive Lancashire v Derbyshire 3 Jun 1961

[10] Cricket Archive Derbyshire v Sussex 7 Jun 1961

[11] Cricket Archive Essex v Derbyshire 10 Jun 1961

[12] Cricket Archive Derbyshire v Essex 17 Jun 1961

[13] Cricket Archive Derbyshire v Lancashire 21 Jun 1961

[14] Cricket ArchiveDerbyshire v Oxford University 24 Jun 1961

[15] Cricket Archive Yorkshire v Derbyshire 28 Jun 1961

[16] Cricket Archive Derbyshire v Leicestershire 1 Jul 1961

[17] Cricket Archive Gloucestershire v Derbyshire 5 Jul 1961

[18] Cricket Archive Derbyshire v Yorkshire 8 Jul 1961

[19] Cricket Archive Glamorgan v Derbyshire 12 Jul 1961

[20] Cricket Archive Derbyshire v Warwickshire 19 Jul 1961

[21] Cricket Archive Worcestershire v Derbyshire 22 Jul 1961

[22] Cricket Archive Middlesex v Derbyshire 26 Jul 1961

[23] Cricket Archive Derbyshire v Nottinghamshire 29 Jul 1961

[24] Cricket Archive Derbyshire v Somerset 2 Aug 1961

[25] Cricket Archive Derbyshire v Northamptonshire 5 Aug 1961

[26] Cricket Archive Leicestershire v Derbyshire 9 Aug 1961

[27] Cricket Archive Derbyshire v Hampshire 12 Aug 1961

[28] Cricket Archive Derbyshire v Surrey 19 Aug 1961

[29] Cricket Archive Warwickshire v Derbyshire 23 Aug 1961

[30] Cricket Archive Sussex v Derbyshire 26 Aug 1961

[31] Cricket Archive Hampshire v Derbyshire 30 Aug 1961

[32] Batting and Fielding for Derbyshire County Championship 1961

[33] Bowling for Derbyshire County Championship 1961