SUSPICION of a dry, turning wicket and concern about the length of their tail with the bat probably cost Ticknall a second successive Beechwood Mazda Derbyshire Premier League victory over Denby.
Scott Chilman's men, after a late, late charge, came up eight runs short of Denby's useful 194-8 with five wickets standing and it was hard to fathom that this was the same team who had knocked off 192 set by champions Swarkestone the previous week with eight overs to spare.
It is not, actually, football that is a funny old game quite so much as cricket, for here were the summer game's oddities and intricacies writ large.
Denby were happy enough to have made Ticknall fall short, having not batted well for long parts of their innings and they took 13 points to Ticknall's 11 on a day when – Denby having chosen to bat first – 27 points were available to both.
Lack of rain – for once – was the key to the pitch, which was dryer than the ground staff would have liked it and helped the spinners throughout. That is some irony at Denby, where the clay base often means they are struggling to get it dry enough.
Denby captain Joe Greenhalgh's decision to bat first had much to do with him perceiving that the wicket would get harder to bat on.
As Alexander Eyre and Brad Davis set off confidently, initial impressions were that it could be a high-scoring game – but those impressions did not last.
Australian wicketkeeper-batsman Davis advanced smoothly to 20 but, in the best moment of the day for a seamer, Ryan Cowley nipped one back to rip out his off stump in the eighth over.
The next half-hour provided catching practice for Paul Borrington after Chilman and Eddie Ikin formed an all-spin attack.
Rehan Hassan appeared to be safe when he launched Chilman high towards the long on boundary but Borrington charged 30 yards to take the catch brilliantly at full stretch.
He did not have to move to take the next two, chipped weakly to mid on by Peter Burgoyne, off Ikin, and Greenhlagh, off Chilman.
Greenhalgh will be especially annoyed, as he had looked in prime form, off the mark with a sweetly-timed six and comfortably on to 22 from 21 balls.
Alexander Eyre had watched the wickets fall and batted patiently to reach 44 but Chilman caught him in two minds and bowled him, then Dan Burgoyne chipped a return catch, nicely held low down by Chilman.
Michael Mitchell, who has not been in good form, worked his way to 24 before being smartly stumped by 15-year-old wicketkeeper James Sookias off Ikin and, at 132-7, the Denby innings could have fallen away.
Instead, Jono Simms and Will Davis came up with the most positive, fear-free batting of the day, helped by the fact that the spinners ended their spells.
They added 48 in quick time, Davis launching two big sixes in his unbeaten 34 from 32 balls and Simms getting caught at long on off Shahid Khan for 26 from 22 balls.
In the end, 194-8 was probably 25 more than Ticknall would have hoped to have kept them to.
Greenhalgh could hardly not give the new ball to Davis, now arguably the best young quick bowler in the division not to have been given a go – yet – by Derbyshire, but he had seen enough from Ticknall's spinners to start with Peter Burgoyne from the other end.
As it happens, Burgoyne looked rather fortunate, bowling round the wicket, to send back Borrington leg before for six but with the score on 17 in the 10th over, Ticknall were already exercising caution.
Luke Harvey might have been the man to change the pace of the innings but he was quite woefully dropped at mid on by Hassan off Burgoyne before charging past a ball from Greenhalgh to be stumped for seven.
Greenhalgh turned the ball more than anyone else, so much so that two balls in his spell passed the bat to be taken at slip.
Hassan was by some distance the least effective of all the spinners on the day but he did make the next crucial breakthrough.
Tom Wood, working hard to get back into some sort of form with the bat, had battled to 38 but nicked a ball from Hassan to Davis behind the stumps.
At 75-3 off 30 overs, Ticknall were looking at six an over to win it but with Ikin and Johnny Thompstone at the crease, fresh from their match-winning fourth-wicket partnership against Swarkestone.
Finally, and not until after the second drinks break, taken at 35 overs, Ikin decided it was time to have a go. He was immediately dropped on the long on boundary and looked like he would make Denby pay for that when he swept Hassan for four, then pulled him for two sixes in the 38th over.
Three or four more like that and it would have been game over but, in the next over from Greenhalgh, Ikin holed out to Simms on the boundary.
Ticknall needed 50 from five overs and Khan threatened briefly before hitting the returning Davis to Peter Burgoyne at long on.
Thompstone kept going for it and reached what in other circumstances would have been a particularly good 50 in the last over but, in the end, Cowley needed to hit 10 from the last two balls and could not connect against Davis.
Greenhalgh had batted first because he thought the wicket would get harder to bat on. In the end, you had to conclude, Ticknall had believed him a little too much.
