The County side opens the season on April 18th with a County Championship game against Glamorgan at the County Ground. They follow up with a repeat fixture against Bradford and Leeds University on the 23rd. Their first one-day fixture is at Lord's on the 27th when they play Middlesex in the Norwich Union.

The Premier and County Leagues both start on the 26th April. The first round of fixtures in the Premier League are as follows:

Alvaston & Boulton v Denby
Clifton v Quarndon
Ockbrook & Borrowash v Dunstall
Sandiacre Town v Sawley & LE Park
Wirksworth v Ilkeston Rutland

Full fixture lists for the Premier and County Leagues can be found on the official league site - click here.

Here at Sting In The Tail, we are eagerly looking forward to the action starting. This season, we plan to leave the reporting of the County side and the local leagues to the experts. We will be putting on the site convenient links to reports from Mark Eklid and Colston Crawford (Derby Evening Telegraph) and Chris Higginbottom and Gwyn Jones (official Play Cricket site). Look in the Media Centre for all the latest news from these sources.

Sting In The Tail will be concentrating on local cricket that you won't find covered elsewhere. So, if you play junior cricket or play in the lower divisions, bookmark this site - you are sure to find something to interest you throughout the season.

We won't be neglecting the major cricket action though. We will carry our own reports and pictures from the major cricket action in the county throughout the season.

Also, we hope to be able to offer our readers the chance to purchase images that appear on this site. So, if you spot yourself in any picture, simply get in touch and we will have a copy of the picture in the post as soon as possible. Charges will be very competitive and will go towards the running costs of the site. More on that later.

All that remains is for us to wish everyone the best of luck for the coming season and we hope that we get to see some great action in a long, hot Summer.

Stick with Sting for the best in Derbyshire cricket.