THERE was no slice of club history for Derbyshire on an extraordinary final day of their LV County Championship match against Surrey at Chesterfield – just another defeat.

The bare facts are that they lost by 42 runs yesterday at Queen's Park and now only one point separates them from Middlesex at the foot of Division Two. Four defeats in five tend to do that to a side's position in the scheme of things.

But the bare facts do not even begin to tell the story of the finale to this contest – an enthralling blend of Test Match Special, Jack and the Beanstalk and Holby City.

Derbyshire set out to explore territory they have never ventured into before after being set 408 to win. No side from the county has ever scored that many in the final innings of a first-class match.

But they came pretty close to pulling off their task in the end and, right the way up to deep in the afternoon, it seemed they might just do it.

Overnight pair Wayne Madsen and Garry Park did all that could have been asked of them in taking Derbyshire to within two balls of reaching lunch with nine wickets still intact.

They put on 160 in 59 overs to take the score to 205-1 when Park edged a Chris Tremlett ball that kept a little low and was caught behind for 54, made off 174 balls with five fours.

That was so tough on Park but the first signs of real difficulty in the innings came when Madsen, having become only the 15th Derbyshire player to score centuries in both innings of a game, fell for 105 in the 11th over after the interval.

The right-hander played tremendously well again, as he did on Tuesday, but suffered another horrible death as he nicked a short and wide come-and-hit-me ball from part-time spinner Usman Afzaal into the gloves of wicketkeeper Gary Wilson.

Worse still, Chesney Hughes was caught at slip first ball to make it 227-4 and Derbyshire needed to start again.

Greg Smith and Wes Durston attempted to do that but they both went in successive overs – Durston lbw to Tremlett and Smith to a head-slappingly poor clip off his toes straight to midwicket.

That was a first wicket for Andre Nel, who was combining his usual pantomime villain act with melodramatic rubbing and clutching of his ailing right hamstring, and he got a second in the penultimate over before tea to remove Lee Goddard lbw.

The score was 284-7 – still 124 needed and the odds beginning to pile up in favour of Surrey, whose constant stream of inane drivel in the field won them no friends.

Robin Peterson made a good 40 before he too clipped a leg-stump half-volley to midwicket at 337-8 and it really did look bleak for Derbyshire then.

Still there was time for another twist, as Tom Lungley got in the way of a firm drive from Steffan Jones and had to retire hurt on 20 with a suspected broken right arm.

Yet when Tim Groenewald was caught at slip two overs later, back came Lungley to bravely face another 21 balls before Tremlett demolished his stumps and that was that.

It was a gallant attempt by Derbyshire and it was the highest fourth innings score ever made at Chesterfield but that was of little consolation afterwards. The bare facts were all that really mattered.