It was only fitting that Geraint Jones, on his 100th consecutive County Championship appearance for Kent, hogged centre stage on a fascinating opening day of this tussle for promotion.
The former England wicketkeeper, who started his run of successive county matches against Hampshire in 2006, top-scored for the hosts after batting almost three hours for 80 runs out of a seemingly modest Kent total of 261.
Having been dropped at second slip off the fifth ball he faced, then missed from a run-out attempt with his score on 11, Jones rode his luck to feature in stands worth 46 for the sixth wicket with Michael Powell, then 57 in 16 overs with Matt Coles, who was caught at slip soon after tea with Kent still four short of a batting bonus point.
Jones, 36, and in the middle of renegotiating terms for a new contract with the club he has served since 2001, then teamed up for his third and possibly brightest stand with the No9, Mark Davies.
The pair added a vital 36 in taking Kent beyond 200 and to a first batting bonus point. More importantly to the punters, however, they had fun in doing so.
Jones pushed on to his front foot whenever given the opportunity to drive and gainfully pick up one of his nine fours, while Davies, a tailender who sees himself as a latter-day, right-handed incarnation of David Gower, lived up to his own billing by rocking on to the back foot to pull a Tim Groenewald bouncer over the ropes at mid-wicket. It was the only six of the day.
Davies was finally run out for 25 when chancing a third to long-off, then Jones, 20 short of his first hundred of the summer, edged a push drive to second slip to be caught on the rebound at first.
Tony Palladino and the lively Mark Turner finished with two wickets apiece but Groenewald was the pick of Derbyshire's impressively accurate attack with three for 63.
Derbyshire, having lost Paul Borrington with a broken nose, the legacy of trying to stop a bludgeoned drive from Davies at extra cover, opened with Wayne Madsen and Usman Khawaja.
Khawaja went without scoring, leg-before to the 13th delivery of the reply from Davies, while the underrated Madsen survived through to stumps with 21 to his name and power to add on day two.