Chairman calls for crisis meeting at Derbyshire

Derbyshire are to hold a crisis meeting today. Mike Horton, the chairman, has called a meeting of the cricket committee to hold an inquest into a string of championship failures which has left the county one from bottom in the table.

"It is not my job to interfere in the running of cricket but I have called this meeting because I am concerned about playing standards," Horton said. "As chairman, I feel it is my duty to pass on some of the concerns that have been voiced to me by the members."

Derbyshire finished next to the bottom last season and are on course for an even worse summer after losing five of the last six four-day games.

Yesterday's 79-run defeat by Somerset was the low point of the season so far - it was only the second time in the county's history that they had lost after enforcing the follow-on.

Somerset richly deserved to complete their victory, inspired by the former Derbyshire batsman, Peter Bowler, who scored a second-innings century on his return to the County Ground.