However, manager Brian Clough was not comfortable with a player splitting his loyalties between football and cricket, and so he moved Buxton on.
[3] Alec Stock then led the club to a third-place finish in the Third Division in 1968–69, just three points behind promoted Swindon Town.
He signed with Notts County of the Fourth Division for the 1969–70 campaign, but played just five games at Meadow Lane.
[1] The club paid the £500 registration fee to sign him permanently, knowing that his cricket commitments meant he missed the last four games anyway.
Though his averages were somewhat down in the following season, it was his first of two ten-wicket hauls in 1961 which truly brought him to the attention of the selectors, as he finished with match figures of 10/104 against Warwickshire.
Buxton was a first-choice player in the team over the next four seasons when he posted one more ten-wicket match against Worcestershire in June 1968.
He was a consistent middle-order batsman whose skill with the ball helped him to gain a first-team place and, between 1970 and 1972, the Derbyshire club captaincy.