Brooke Guest scored his first century in nearly three years as Derbyshire tightened their grip on the second day of the Rothesay County Championship Division Two match against Northamptonshire at the Central Co-op County Ground Derby.

The wicketkeeper made 141 and shared a sixth-wicket stand of 241 with Martin Andersson, who scored 106 before Derbyshire declared on 604 for 7, the sixth-highest total in the county’s history.

Northamptonshire collapsed after tea against Ben Aitchison and Rory Haydon, who both took two wickets before Calvin Harrison and James Sales steered them to 98 for 4 at the close, still 506 behind.

Derbyshire’s dominance was briefly threatened by a fine spell of pace bowling from Harry Conway who removed the overnight pair in consecutive overs.

Only five runs had been added when Conway found some late movement to trap Madsen lbw for 59 and he denied fellow Australian Caleb Jewell a century in his next over.

Jewell was six short of what would have been his second first-class Derbyshire hundred but was lured into playing at one that did just enough to take the outside edge.

But any hopes Northants entertained of wrapping up the innings were dashed by Guest and Andersson, who played with increasing authority to reassert Derbyshire’s control.

Guest pulled Conway over the ropes at fine leg and a fourth batting point was secured by Andersson in the 110th over when he cut George Scrimshaw to a vacant third man boundary.

The runs continued to flow after lunch with Guest celebrating his first hundred since July 2023 before Andersson reached his second century of the season.

Northants finally broke the stand when Andersson tried to whip Nathan McSweeney through midwicket and the declaration came after Guest missed a slog-sweep.

It was the second time this season Derbyshire had passed 600 and it left Northants needing 455 to avoid following on.

That target looked even more distant when Aitchison struck in the third over, tempting Ricardo Vasconcelos to push at a ball outside his off stump, and the visitors’ problems mounted after tea.

Haydon had taken 10 wickets in the defeat at Canterbury and he produced a superb ball to dismiss Luke Proctor who had his off stump removed by one that came back.

Scoreboard pressure probably claimed the next two wickets with McSweeney caught behind trying to leg glance Aitchison before Saif Zaib flashed at a wide ball from Haydon to give Guest his 200th first-class dismissal for Derbyshire.

Zak Chappell turned the screw with a probing spell that should have brought the wicket of James Sales who was dropped in the gully on 11.and England off-spinner Shoaib Bashir also commanded respect in a six over spell that cost only 10 runs.

Harrison and Sales dug in but the visitors have a lot of work to do on the last two days to avoid defeat.