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 1963 Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1963 Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1963 was the cricket season when the English club Derbyshire had been playing for ninety-two years. It was their fifty-ninth season in the County Championship and they won two championship matches and lost fourteen to finish seventeenth in the County Championship. It was the first season in which the Gillette Cup was played, and Derbyshire reached the quarter finals. Derbyshire played 28 games in the County Championship, one match against the Pakistani Eaglets, one against the touring West Indies and one match against Cambridge University. They won three first