Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1931 represents the cricket season when the English club Derbyshire had been playing for sixty years. It was their thirty-third season in the County Championship and they won seven matches to finish seventh.

1931 season

Derbyshire were fortunate in persuading A. W. Richardson to become captain in 1931. Building on the efforts of Guy Jackson and with the help of the coach, Sam Cadman, Richardson set about building the team that became a match-winning combination and took the championship in 1936.W.T. Taylor History of Derbyshire cricket Wisden 1953

Derbyshire played 28 games in the County Championship, and one match against the touring New Zealanders. Denis Smith was top scorer with two centuries. Veteran Archibald Slater, in his last season, took 106 wickets closely followed by Tommy Mitchell on 105.

The only new arrival in the Derbyshire side in 1931 was Alan Skinner who was to see many years service with the club.

Matches

{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;" |- ! colspan="6"| List of matches |- !No. !Date !V !Result !Margin !Notes

|1 |2 May 1931Cricket Archive Derbyshire v Leicestershire 2 May 1931 | Leicestershire County Ground, Derby | style="background:#fc0;"|Drawn

|2 |6 May 1931Cricket Archive Gloucestershire v Derbyshire 6 May 1931 | Gloucestershire The Victoria Ground, Cheltenham | style="background:#f00;"|Lost |4 wickets |Parker 6–41 and 8–50

|3 | 9 May 1931Cricket Archive Surrey v Derbyshire 9 May 1931 | SurreyKennington Oval | style="background:#fc0;"|Drawn | | A E Alderman 113; Fender 100

|4 | 16 May 1931Cricket Archive Derbyshire v Kent 16 May 1931 | Kent County Ground, Derby | style="background:#f00;"|Lost |9 wickets | Freeman 5–63; AG Slater 8–63

|5 | 20 May 1931Cricket Archive Essex v Derbyshire 20 May 1931 | Essex County Ground, Leyton | style="background:#fc0;"|Drawn | | D Smith 131; GM Lee 147

|6 | 23 May 1931Cricket Archive Warwickshire v Derbyshire 23 May 1931 | Warwickshire Edgbaston, Birmingham | style="background:#fc0;"|Drawn | | Croom 103; Paine 6–80

|7 | 27 May 1931Cricket Archive Worcestershire v Derbyshire 27 May 1931 | Worcestershire County Ground, New Road, Worcester | style="background:#fc0;"|Drawn

|8 | 30 May 1931Cricket Archive Derbyshire v Sussex 30 May 1931 | Sussex Queen's Park, Chesterfield | style="background:#0f0;"|Won |Innings and 188 runs | T. B. Mitchell 6–11 and 6–19

|9 | 6 Jun 1931Cricket Archive Derbyshire v Nottinghamshire 6 Jun 1931 | Nottinghamshire Rutland Recreation Ground, Ilkeston | style="background:#fc0;"|Drawn | |L F Townsend 6–59

|10 | 13 Jun 1931Cricket Archive Derbyshire v New Zealand 13 Jun 1931 |New Zealand County Ground, Derby | style="background:#fc0;"|Drawn | |Not a County Championship matchT. B. Mitchell 5–97

|11 | 17 Jun 1931Cricket Archive Derbyshire v Essex 17 Jun 1931 | EssexRutland Recreation Ground, Ilkeston | style="background:#fc0;"|Drawn | |AG Slater 8–51

|12 | 20 Jun 1931Cricket Archive Derbyshire v Hampshire 20 Jun 1931 |Hampshire Queen's Park, Chesterfield | style="background:#0f0;"|Won |8 wickets | D Smith 108; T. B. Mitchell 5–47

|13 | 24 Jun 1931Cricket Archive Glamorgan v Derbyshire 24 Jun 1931 | Glamorgan Cardiff Arms Park | style="background:#fc0;"|Drawn

|14 | 27 Jun 1931Cricket Archive Derbyshire v Worcestershire 27 Jun 1931 | WorcestershireCounty Ground, Derby | style="background:#0f0;"|Won |7 wickets |Gibbons 109; Root 5–113; H Storer 5–32

|15 | 1 Jul 1931Cricket Archive Derbyshire v Surrey 1 Jul 1931 | Surrey Queen's Park, Chesterfield | style="background:#fc0;"|Drawn | | T. B. Mitchell 6–157; Fender 6–102

|16 | 4 Jul 1931Cricket Archive Derbyshire v Leicestershire 4 Jul 1931 | Leicestershire Bath Grounds, Ashby-de-la-Zouch | style="background:#fc0;"|Drawn | | AG Slater 5–28

|17 | 8 Jul 1931Cricket Archive Sussex v Derbyshire 8 Jul 1931 | Sussex County Ground, Hove | style="background:#f00;"|Lost |Innings and 14 runs | Wensley 6–47 and 6–48; T S Worthington 5–80

|18 | 11 Jul 1931Cricket Archive Hampshire v Derbyshire 11 Jul 1931 |Hampshire County Ground, Southampton | style="background:#0f0;"|Won |145 runs | Baring 5–85; L F Townsend 6–23;

|19 | 18 Jul 1931Cricket Archive Derbyshire v Gloucestershire 18 Jul 1931 | Gloucestershire Queen's Park, Chesterfield | style="background:#f00;"|Lost |18 runs | T. B. Mitchell 6–79; Goddard 8–79; Parker 6–64

|20 | 22 Jul 1931Cricket Archive Derbyshire v Northamptonshire 22 Jul 1931 | Northamptonshire County Ground, Derby | style="background:#0f0;"|Won |6 wickets | GM Lee 173; Timms 147; T. B. Mitchell 5–39

|21 | 25 Jul 1931Cricket Archive Derbyshire v Middlesex 25 Jul 1931 | Middlesex Rutland Recreation Ground, Ilkeston | style="background:#fc0;"|Drawn | | Peebles 5–58; AG Slater 5–32

|22 | 29 Jul 1931Cricket Archive Derbyshire v Lancashire 29 Jul 1931 |Lancashire Park Road Ground, Buxton | style="background:#fc0;"|Drawn | | L F Townsend 6–49; Hopwood 5–52

|23 | 1 Aug 1931Cricket Archive Derbyshire v Warwickshire 1 Aug 1931 | Warwickshire County Ground, Derby | style="background:#f00;"|Lost |9 wickets | Partridge 5–47; Paine 5–67

|24 | 5 Aug 1931Cricket Archive Kent v Derbyshire 5 Aug 1931 | Kent St Lawrence Ground, Canterbury | style="background:#fc0;"|Drawn | | L F Townsend 5–78; Freeman 5–77; Marriott 5–42

|25 | 8 Aug 1931Cricket Archive Nottinghamshire v Derbyshire 8 Aug 1931 | Nottinghamshire Trent Bridge, Nottingham | style="background:#fc0;"|Drawn

|26 | 15 Aug 1931Cricket Archive Northamptonshire v Derbyshire 15 Aug 1931 | Northamptonshire County Ground, Northampton | style="background:#0f0;"|Won |Innings and 71 runs | GM Lee 141; L F Townsend 8–45;

|27 | 19 Aug 1931Cricket Archive Middlesex v Derbyshire 19 Aug 1931 | Middlesex Lord's Cricket Ground, St John's Wood |No play | |Match abandoned

|28 | 22 Aug 1931Cricket Archive Derbyshire v Glamorgan 22 Aug 1931 | Glamorgan Queen's Park, Chesterfield | style="background:#0f0;"|Won |184 runs | Ryan 7–105; AG Slater 5–27; Mercer 5–37;

|29 | 26 Aug 1931Cricket Archive Lancashire v Derbyshire 26 Aug 1931 |Lancashire Stanley Park, Blackpool | style="background:#f00;"|Lost |3 wickets | AG Slater 5–22; Tyldesley 6–21

Statistics County Championship batting averages Name Matches Inns Runs High score Average 100sGM Lee 26 39 1152 173 32.91 3 H Storer 22 35 1028 115* 32.12 1 D Smith 27 43 1214 131 31.12 2 A E Alderman 27 40 895 113* 27.96 1 GR Jackson 7 11 270 81 24.54 0 L F Townsend 25 33 673 80* 21.70 0 T S Worthington 27 37 589 45 19.00 0 A V Pope 2 3 36 16 18.00 0 JM Hutchinson 9 14 218 71 16.76 0 AG Slater 27 35 483 52 15.58 0 A W Richardson 26 32 374 49 13.35 0 T. B. Mitchell 27 28 182 29 10.70 0 H Elliott 27 32 264 37 9.77 0 NM Ford 2 4 26 24 6.50 0 CC Clarke 4 6 36 21 6.00 0 JDH Gilbert 5 3 12 6 4.00 0 A F Skinner 1 1 4 4 4.00 0 T R Armstrong 6 8 18 15 3.00 0Batting and Fielding for Derbyshire County Championship 1931

County Championship bowling averages Name Balls Runs Wickets BB AverageAG Slater 5526 1714 106 8–51 16.16 T. B. Mitchell 5525 2218 105 6–11 21.12 L F Townsend 3072 1098 72 8–45 15.25 T S Worthington 3882 1362 57 5–80 23.89 H Storer 958 408 16 5–32 25.50 GM Lee 922 347 14 4–34 24.78 T R Armstrong 335 85 7 2–9 12.14 A V Pope 342 114 6 4–54 19.00 D Smith 156 42 0 A E Alderman 24 10 0 GR Jackson 17 20 0 A W Richardson 12 6 0Bowling for Derbyshire County Championship 1931

Wicket-keeper

H Elliott Catches 43 Stumping 28

See also Derbyshire County Cricket Club seasons 1931 English cricket season

References