Both counties had been hovering around the lower reaches of the table but Derbyshire were improving and they hammered the point home at Edgbaston in the Whitsuntide fixture of 1923. Jim Horsley and Bestwick bowled Warwickshire out for 122 and then Storer and Sam Cadman steered them to a lead of 111. Needing 132 for victory, Derbyshire struggled but Guy Jackson held firm. He was missed at long leg when he was 12 and again at slip on 13 but his innings of 82 not out got Derbyshire home by four wickets. Jackson went a stage further in the return at Derby with an unbeaten 109 but the match was drawn. The series entered a period of eight consecutive drawn games between 1923 and 1927, with only a few individual performances of note. George Stephens and Arthur Croom shared a ninth wicket partnership of 154 for Warwickshire at Edgbaston in 1925; Bill Bestwick made the final appearance of his career on August Bank Holiday Saturday in 1925 at Derby; Len Bates and the young Bob Wyatt made big hundreds at Derby in 1926, Tiger Smith caught four batsmen and stumped three in the first innings at Birmingham the following August and followed this with 177 when opening the innings at Whitsuntide in 1927. There was a close finish to this match. No play was possible onWhit Monday and on the last day Derbyshire, 244 behind on the first innings, had lost eight wickets for 200 when bad light halted play at ten minutes to five. After a 35-minute delay the game resumed and Archie Slater was brilliantly caught at point by Partridge off Calthorpe for 105 after a stay lasting three hours and 10 minutes. Derbyshire hung on, closing at 242 for nine. In 1927 Derbyshire selected their side mainly from twelve players: Storer, Joe Bowden, Slater, Guy Jackson, Garnet Lee, Jim Hutchinson, Stan Worthington, Les Townsend, the long-serving wicket-keeper Harry Elliott and Wilf Shardlow, with the final place going to Anthony Jackson or another amateur Escott Loney. By the first week in August they were third, behind Nottinghamshire and Lancashire, with Yorkshire fourth. The August Bank Holiday match provided the County Ground faithful with some excellent cricket, Derbyshire needing 231 on the final day. Major Llewellyn Eardley-Simpson, a club official for 47 years and a noted historian, described it as one of the finest he ever watched. “On the first innings our visitors led by 60, and at the end of the second day they were 213 ahead with three wickets in hand. On the last morning these three soon fell and, with 231 to win we had 72 for the loss of Joe Bowden by lunch – quite a fair appetiser! But things soon began to go wrong, and with six down for 147 it was a fight. There was soon another victim and I shall never forget how I marked off the last 50 runs on the back of a score card, which is still a treasured possession. Fortunately, Anthony Jackson and Les Townsend were full of confidence, and when the latter, in trying to drive Howell out of the ground, was caught by Willie Quaife at cover, the game was a tie. It was left to Harry Elliott – not for the only time – to win the game; he scored a single, and we took the points with two wickets to spare.” Anthony Jackson was unbeaten with 34 and Derbyshire finished fifth in the table. Eardley-Simpson also recalled the 1928 Whitsun match at Derby. Derbyshire made 295, Hutchinson hitting 111 and Arthur Richardson 49. Derbyshire were doing well but Wyatt made a hundred and Reg Santall and Danny Mayer added 104 in 55 minutes for the ninth wicket, enabling them to lead by 62. Richardson made an unbeaten 70 and, after some hesitation, Jackson decided to declare, leaving Warwickshire to score 176 in 115 minutes. “Two full pitches in the first over were eagerly accepted, and Tiger Smith helped Norman Kilner to rush up Breaching the Big Six 81