Cricket: Glamorgan frustrated

Derbyshire 513-6 dec & 35-0 Glamorgan 364-8 dec Match drawn

The County Championship leaders Glamorgan ended a frustrating match at Chesterfield in frustrating fashion, watching rain wash out all lingering hopes they had of strengthening their title claim. Most of the damage to their prospects was done on the first day when Derbyshire belied their position at the foot of the table by laying the foundations of their first innings total. But Glamorgan, who declared their own first innings as soon as they had avoided the follow-on, must still have entertained hopes of being set a total to chase in the last couple of sessions yesterday.

The chances of that happening took an early knock when steady drizzle delayed the re-start by an hour. As soon as play recommenced, so did the rain with Glamorgan managing less than three overs before their luck with the weather ran out - one of them from Waqar Younis and one plus an uncompleted one from Robert Croft's stand-in, the slow left-armer Dean Cosker.

Adrian Rollins and Michael May, Derbyshire's century-makers in the first innings, added seven runs to their overnight total before an early lunch. Halfway through the cheese and biscuits, though, the clouds closed in again and the players showed their disdain for the prospects of further play by organising a football match on the outfield. The ducks from the Queen's Park ponds looked on at the scene appreciatively and, early in the afternoon, the umpires and captains bowed to the inevitable.

It was particularly annoying for the Chesterfield-born May, who, on a rare Championship outing, must have fancied adding some quick runs to his first-innings 116 and improving his chances of a new contract for next season. But the rain was unrelenting, denying Glamorgan a victory that had to be part of their Championship calculations.

It also threatens Dominic Cork's projected return in today's Sunday League match between the two counties - Derbyshire's last fixture before the NatWest quarter-final against Sussex on Tuesday, very much their highlight in an otherwise drab season.