County cricket being played in 1709, though an official County Championship was not instituted until 1890. Having already been badly hit by the Seven Years' War, county cricket ceased altogether during the Napoleonic Wars and there was a period from 1797 to 1824 during which no inter-county matches took place. Inter-county cricket was popular throughout the 18th century, although the best team, such as Kent in the 1740s or Hampshire in the days of the famous Hambledon Club, was usually acknowledged as such by being matched against All-England. The most successful county teams were Hampshire, Kent, Middlesex, Surrey and Sussex. There was,
Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1969 Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1969 Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1969 represents the cricket season when the English club Derbyshire had been playing for ninety-eight years. They were runners-up in the Gillette Cup. In the County Championship, they won three matches to finish sixteenth in their sixty-fifth season in the Championship. In the first season of the John Player League they ended fifteenth after winning five matches. Derbyshire played 24 games in the County Championship, one match against Oxford University, and one against the touring New Zealanders. They won three first class matches altogether and lost five, the majority