Diary: Derbyshire Day Four. Milnes stars as Kent win at last
05.05.26, 09:22 Updated 05.05.26, 09:32
Fred Atkins
Diary of a cricket season. Bank Holiday Monday May 4th, 2026.
Rothesay County Championship Day 4. Kent 352 and 335 v Derbyshire 304 and 158. Kent 22 points, Derbyshire 5 points. Kent win by 225 runs.
On Sunday night, Wayne Madsen, a man who could pass as Ryan Reynolds’ slightly sportier older brother, said Derbyshire would approach day four with a positive attitude. “We trust and believe in a winning mindset,” he said. “That's what we've spoken about all season so far. It hasn't happened yet, but the message tonight was, come prepared, ready to win the game tomorrow.”
A professional sportsman has to say this of course: he can hardly go out and say: “we’re …....” But the optimism wasn’t shared by BBC Derbyshire’s Dave Fletcher, who was confidently predicting it would all be over by 3pm. Fletcher and Derbyshire’s Heritage Officer Dave Griffin are one of the county circuits great double acts: the former is full of laconic one-liners, while the latter has a staggering recall for stats.
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Fred Atkins Fred Atkins is a former Kent Messenger sports editor and has written several books, including The Spitfire Diaries, an account of Kent's 2021 season and Monty Panesar's "The Full Monty". He has followed KCCC since 1993 and has covered them for the ECB and Wisden since 2021.