DERBYSHIRE can claim to have produced the best all-round wickets in the country last season.

Head groundsman Neil Godrich was at Lord's this week to collect his trophy after being named the England and Wales Cricket Board's one-day groundsman of the year for 2009.

The playing surfaces at the County Ground and at Chesterfield were taken into account towards the award.

Every pitch is rated at the end of the match by each of the umpires. The winners of each category are the groundsmen whose pitches have achieved the highest average rating across the course of the season.

Godrich's Derbyshire team also finished fourth in the four-day pitch category, won by Matt Merchant of Lancashire.

No other county finished with as high a combination of ratings for both forms of the game and though there was no such ECB award for the overall best pitches, Derbyshire would have finished above the other 17 counties if there had.

The new season will present another challenge for Godrich, as Derbyshire are to go ahead with turning the County Ground playing square.