Hampshire can wreck promotion party (From Hampshire Chronicle)

Hampshire can wreck Derbyshire's promotion party

9:31am Monday 10th September 2012 in Sport

HAMPSHIRE’S final game of the County Championship season at Derby is a chance to wreck Derbyshire’s promotion party.

Despite last Friday’s 222-run defeat by Kent, Derbyshire are still top of Division Two and with promotion still in their own hands.

They lead Yorkshire, in the second promotion place, by one point and are six points ahead of Kent in third in what is now a three-horse race.

Hampshire’s defeat by Essex last Friday all but mathematically rules them out.

Derbyshire head coach Karl Krikken believes his players will take no lifting as they prepare for their deciding home match, which starts tomorrow.

“You don’t like losing but we can’t afford to feel down about it,” he said after the Kent loss.

“We can’t mope and we can't remonstrate about how the game's gone. We have to get up again.

“We’re going into the last game top of the league still and if we win, we go up.

“It’s still in our hands and we couldn't have asked for more than that at the start of the season.”

Derbyshire must wait to see how strong a side Hampshire name for this final game.

Jimmy Adams's Royals are now 24 points behind Yorkshire and so can only go up if they beat Derbyshire with maximum points, Yorkshire fail to take a single point at Essex and Kent take five points or less away to Glamorgan.

They also have the Clydesdale Bank 40 final at Lord’s to look forward to on Saturday.

 

Full story in today's Daily Echo