The club had lost first class status after 1887 and did not regain it until 1894, the year before they joined the County Championship.
However many of the players competed for the club earlier or subsequently at first-class level.
Sydney Evershed took over the captaincy from Fred Spofforth who made his one last appearance during the year.
William Taylor noted that during Derbyshire's period in exile many fine players wore their colours including S H Evershed, who in captained the eleven with marked ability for many years and the grand veteran, Levi Wright – "a magnificent batsman and unsurpassed as a fieldsman in the oldfashioned position of square-point".
[1] With Evershed, and his brother Edward, William Eadie and Robert Tomlinson, the team was well represented by brewers of Burton.