Yorkshire v Derbyshire day 2: Chesney's great day

Chesney Hughes of Derbyshire hits out for six runs during day one of the LV County Championship Division One match between Yorkshire and Derbyshire at Headingley on April 29, 2013 in Leeds, England. (Getty Images)

While Chesney Hughes ran out of partners on 270 not out, he can sleep well in the knowledge that he has played one of the great innings in the 143-year history of our club.

It is worth noting that Chesney batted for four minutes over nine hours and faced 415 balls in his monumental knock. All the more remarkable was that with the exception of Wayne Madsen, no one else made more than 27.

It can said with a degree of confidence that he is now our number one choice of opening bat and it was nice to see him acknowledge the influence of Shivnarine Chanderpaul on his batting, the latter being willing to talk cricket and the art of batting to anyone who wants to learn how to do it properly. One cannot fault Hughes’ willingness to work at his game and he has pretty much nailed, perhaps for good, the suggestion that he gives it away when set. It was telling that Chanderpaul urged him to fully capitalise on a couple of days when eyes, hands and feet moved in perfect unison and his bat must have seemed the width of a door to the Yorkshire bowlers.

Were it ever so for a batsman! There will be days to come when things just don’t just feel right and the return to the pavilion is unpleasantly prompt, but as Hughes moved past Stan Worthington and Pat Vaulkhard today in the all-time highest innings list, only George Davidson lay ahead of him.

Davidson had made his epic 274 on August 10 and 11, 1896 and it was the major part of a Derbyshire total of 577 against Lancashire, with William Chatterton and William Storer also recording centuries. We ‘collapsed’ from 542-3 to 577 all out in that game, which ended in a draw. After his innings, which surpassed his previous best of 88 by some margin, Davidson went on to bowl 57 overs in Lancashire’s reply as we enforced the follow-on. 117 years later Davidson is still…at the top of the pile.

The thinking money would be on a draw in this game too, as Yorkshire look set to post a massive total themselves by the close of play. 164-1 with Root and Jaques entrenched and Gale, Ballance and Bairstow to come suggests that Chesney may have to bowl a few overs too. Hopefully not quite as many as 57 though.

The word ‘great’ is overused in the modern world, but by the purest definition of that word, Chesney Hughes was elevated to greatness today and his name will be in the club records for a long. long time. He may never reach such heights again, or he may go on to surpass both that and Davidson’s score in years to come. At 22, however, he has done even more for the club than perhaps himself over the past two days.

Because people now see that we have players of genuine talent. They all knew about Chanderpaul, that Madsen was an excellent professional and that Redfern was a young tyro of potential. But Hughes has opened eyes and started people talking about Derbyshire, the club that very shrewdly has him signed up for the next three years.

If his sterling, astonishing, remarkable effort can be emulated by a Whiteley, Redfern, Godleman or Burgoyne in the coming months, so much the better.

Today was the day that Chesney Hughes came of age. For one night only, Derbyshire CCC, in recognition of Hughes and Chanderpaul, has become the Derbyshire Caribbean Concentration Collective.

Congratulations Chesney.