To anyone not interested in County cricket the importance of the clash match between Durham and Yorkshire will have seemed peculiarly English given that it was also the most important National Budget day since the ending of World War II.
For those like me who were present at the University Racecourse ground Durham City in April 1992 for the first game played of First class County Cricket. Wednesday 22nd April 2009 was an emotional occasion as for the first time in the history of the club Durham were to take the field or its opening batsmen go to the crease as reigning County Champions of cricket’s four day two innings contest. Originally three days the championship and international test cricket is the heart and soul of cricket, and the one day 60, 50, 40 and now 20 over single innings games are froth and money making.
The Yorkshire team are not just championship neighbours but the most successful club in British cricket history with 30 titles although for over thirty years between 1968 and 2001 its policy of insisting on recruiting and playing only those born in county had a major negative effect. The Yorkshire supporters also voted against moving from the present residential location to a new Green field site for a super stadium another indication of an unwillingness to adjust to the contemporary transformation of English cricket. This I suspect is more rural Yorkshire than Leeds City which is adjusting to the exporting of manufacturing production to new economies. Leeds United, the football club, who rejected Brian Clough after 63 days, as its manager, was to have had a new super stadium until financial mismanagement led to the near extinction of the club as all its better players were sold to meet debts. The return of Martyn Moxon from Durham to Yorkshire as their Cricket Director is likely to transform the club as he was able to do at Durham.
My boyhood supporting team, Surrey has only own the championship 18 times, with seven successive wins in the 1950’s as I was leaving school and went to work in central London, passing every day Balham station from where the underground train went to the Oval station, round the corner from Surrey Cricket Ground. Then Surrey had P B H May, the medium paced Bedser twins and Locke and Laker, not one but two international class spinners of the ball. Our rivals were Middlesex, the posh club whose home was Lords, the headquarters of the Marylebone Cricket Club, the MCC and where it was only after becoming a member of the Durham County Club that I had the privilege of visiting the Members stand and facilities, where only Gentleman are allowed and one is obliged to wear a tie even on he warmest of a summer’s day. Standing in the Long Room in which every players passes as a team or batsmen was one of the most exciting experiences of my life along with having watched Denis Compton and Bill Edrich of county and England, bat along with Yorkshire’s Freddie Truman Bowl and Sur Leonard Hutton bat and whose signed book Just My Story was the first book about cricket I bought,
For the record, Yorkshire’s traditional rival, Lancashire, the War of the Roses, has won the championship 7 times with Essex, Kent and Warwick 6, Notts and Worcestershire 5, and where Gloucestershire, Northants and Somerset have never won. Lancashire, Middlesex and Surrey have never finished bottom and Yorks only once. It is five years since one of the big four won the trophy and Sussex notably won for the first time in 2003 and then again in 2006 and 2007. Warwickshire 2004 and Nottinghamshire 2005 heralded a change which Durham’s victory has reinforced.
It will have been a bitter pill for many of the hard nosed conservative Yorkshire man to have greeted Durham’s championship win with enthusiasm especially as it was a proud Yorkshire man who was one of a handful of individuals who changed the fortunes of the team with the departure of Chairman Don Robson in 2004.
Don Robson was chairman of Durham County Council. I am yet to establish if he is was one of the seven sons of a seventh son, Robson family, one of whom served on South Tyneside Council during the period when I was employed there and where another brother became Vice Chairman of my committee and good friend. Both have since died. According to Tim Wellock, the author of the informative, entertaining and moving book about the development of Durham from a club which finished bottom of the championship for three years out of its first five and twice more subsequently, Don tended to run things and he ran the County Council and concentrated on the finding a site for the Club ground to be created and for its development into a venue to hold international cricket matches and which brings in major revenue, rather than put the emphasis on creating a winning team.
Of course this is an oversimplification. In the early days he and the Director’s of cricket brought a succession of international cricketers to play for the club, all of whom were past their prime. The most notable was Ian Botham who performances singled handed won the Ashes a few years earlier. While several gave 100% to club they no longer had the drive and ambition required to win a championship title and it is also fair to say that some, Johnny Morris in particular, were disasters. The comparatively small Durham hard core membership remains generous in giving praise for anyone, regardless of the team who plays cricket well and will loyally support home players who give their all and can take frank comments. However as with local football teams, because of years of performing badly in what are competitive and partisan games, supporters can quickly turn on someone who consistently fails to deliver or who tries to take on the crowd at their own game, instead of answering critics on the playing field. There is also a different approach towards anyone who is not regarded as a Durham man.
As mentioned, in 2004 Don Robson retired from the chairmanship and this coincided with a combination of new appointments and local men coming good. While players like Simon Brown and John Wood had reached the fringes of the senior international squad, it was the emergence of Durham born Stephen Harmison and Paul Collingwood as important members of the English team, and with Phil Mustard and Liam Plunket coming into consideration, bringing in Dale Beckenstein as a player and captain, under the direction of Yorkshire’s Martyn Moxon which turned the tide in an almost unbelievable way. It was the irony of ironies that when Yorkshire became desperate having barely survived in Division one of the Championship and successfully pleaded with Martyn to become their Director of Cricket Durham, were reaching their peak and had the excellent Geoff Cooke ready to take over. Geoff has been with Durham from the beginning and was able to continue the momentum created by Martyn with the additional advantage of understanding the nature of Durham Cricket Club and its supporters through and through.
Wednesday was therefore a very important day in the history of the club and in the development of a rivalry between Durham and Yorkshire. Until the last couple of years there was a comradeship from adversity between supporters of the two clubs with a number having dual membership, especially those living in South Durham and North Yorkshire and where with two motor routes it is easier for those in North Yorks to get quickly to the Durham ground than it is for them to get into Leeds.
As with the game on Sunday the wicket was set on the west side of square, restricting the behind the wicket west mini stand to about half the usual size and so with the influx of visitors from Yorkshire I was lucky to have free seats on either side. Given the win on Sunday the travelling Yorkshire fans were in good spirits and optimistic that their team would teach the new championships about rightful places. Although the wicket was good, Durham’s early batsmen had to work hard and four wickets fell before lunch Stoneman for 2 at 20, Du Venuto who had started positively at 41 for 36, Muchall at 69 for 13 and finally captain.
It was only in the afternoon that new signing Ian Blackwell came into his own and was out just five runs short on what would have been his second 100 for his new county. Later and yesterday Phil Mustard moved from playing a supporting to a commanding role but he ran out of team mates after reaching 94. Durham reached a creditable 364, and yesterday when Gale, Vaughan, Rudolph and McGrath were out at 142, it looked as Durham was about to achieve again the dominance of last year. In form Brophy 75 and Bresnan 40 added another 100 for the fifth wicket during which time I came home as the sun had gone in and I was tired having been up a five am with the latest Travel Lodge sale of rooms for £9. However having got both these batsman out Durham start today with the edge hoping to get the last four wickets quickly and take a good first innings lead. I suspect Yorkshire will eek out the runs and everything will depend on the second innings and how the wicket performs on the fourth day.
I used the intervals to take closer look at the new stand and sat in it for a time and it certainly gives a football view of proceedings. The seats are comfortable with good leg room. Yesterday I tool my own high backed folding chair and enjoyed a boundary view which bring an intimate involvement in the game although I was very tired for most of the time given the early rising.
I bought my copy of Tim Wellock’s book Summers with Durham during the luncheon interval on the first day and which he signed to Colin. He is a former player for Durham University and then in local leagues at Tynemouth, Darlington and Sedgefield and then for his true love of village cricket at Aldbrough St John near his home. He was a full time journalist and deputy editor for the Northern Echo before becoming a free lance sport’s writer in 1987 and followed Durham Home and Away since becoming a first class county in 1992 and is able to say he has seen more games than all but a handful of supporters, as well as writing for the Daily and Sunday Telegraph. He has also penned the article on Durham in this year edition of Wisden. I like his story about two supporters who travelled through the night by car to get to Kent for the winning morning last autumn. I had nearly done the same but counselled myself against doing in case it was the kiss of death for the prospects of success although it appeared that only the intervention of the devil would alter the outcome. God was on our side.
For those like me who were present at the University Racecourse ground Durham City in April 1992 for the first game played of First class County Cricket. Wednesday 22nd April 2009 was an emotional occasion as for the first time in the history of the club Durham were to take the field or its opening batsmen go to the crease as reigning County Champions of cricket’s four day two innings contest. Originally three days the championship and international test cricket is the heart and soul of cricket, and the one day 60, 50, 40 and now 20 over single innings games are froth and money making.
The Yorkshire team are not just championship neighbours but the most successful club in British cricket history with 30 titles although for over thirty years between 1968 and 2001 its policy of insisting on recruiting and playing only those born in county had a major negative effect. The Yorkshire supporters also voted against moving from the present residential location to a new Green field site for a super stadium another indication of an unwillingness to adjust to the contemporary transformation of English cricket. This I suspect is more rural Yorkshire than Leeds City which is adjusting to the exporting of manufacturing production to new economies. Leeds United, the football club, who rejected Brian Clough after 63 days, as its manager, was to have had a new super stadium until financial mismanagement led to the near extinction of the club as all its better players were sold to meet debts. The return of Martyn Moxon from Durham to Yorkshire as their Cricket Director is likely to transform the club as he was able to do at Durham.
My boyhood supporting team, Surrey has only own the championship 18 times, with seven successive wins in the 1950’s as I was leaving school and went to work in central London, passing every day Balham station from where the underground train went to the Oval station, round the corner from Surrey Cricket Ground. Then Surrey had P B H May, the medium paced Bedser twins and Locke and Laker, not one but two international class spinners of the ball. Our rivals were Middlesex, the posh club whose home was Lords, the headquarters of the Marylebone Cricket Club, the MCC and where it was only after becoming a member of the Durham County Club that I had the privilege of visiting the Members stand and facilities, where only Gentleman are allowed and one is obliged to wear a tie even on he warmest of a summer’s day. Standing in the Long Room in which every players passes as a team or batsmen was one of the most exciting experiences of my life along with having watched Denis Compton and Bill Edrich of county and England, bat along with Yorkshire’s Freddie Truman Bowl and Sur Leonard Hutton bat and whose signed book Just My Story was the first book about cricket I bought,
For the record, Yorkshire’s traditional rival, Lancashire, the War of the Roses, has won the championship 7 times with Essex, Kent and Warwick 6, Notts and Worcestershire 5, and where Gloucestershire, Northants and Somerset have never won. Lancashire, Middlesex and Surrey have never finished bottom and Yorks only once. It is five years since one of the big four won the trophy and Sussex notably won for the first time in 2003 and then again in 2006 and 2007. Warwickshire 2004 and Nottinghamshire 2005 heralded a change which Durham’s victory has reinforced.
It will have been a bitter pill for many of the hard nosed conservative Yorkshire man to have greeted Durham’s championship win with enthusiasm especially as it was a proud Yorkshire man who was one of a handful of individuals who changed the fortunes of the team with the departure of Chairman Don Robson in 2004.
Don Robson was chairman of Durham County Council. I am yet to establish if he is was one of the seven sons of a seventh son, Robson family, one of whom served on South Tyneside Council during the period when I was employed there and where another brother became Vice Chairman of my committee and good friend. Both have since died. According to Tim Wellock, the author of the informative, entertaining and moving book about the development of Durham from a club which finished bottom of the championship for three years out of its first five and twice more subsequently, Don tended to run things and he ran the County Council and concentrated on the finding a site for the Club ground to be created and for its development into a venue to hold international cricket matches and which brings in major revenue, rather than put the emphasis on creating a winning team.
Of course this is an oversimplification. In the early days he and the Director’s of cricket brought a succession of international cricketers to play for the club, all of whom were past their prime. The most notable was Ian Botham who performances singled handed won the Ashes a few years earlier. While several gave 100% to club they no longer had the drive and ambition required to win a championship title and it is also fair to say that some, Johnny Morris in particular, were disasters. The comparatively small Durham hard core membership remains generous in giving praise for anyone, regardless of the team who plays cricket well and will loyally support home players who give their all and can take frank comments. However as with local football teams, because of years of performing badly in what are competitive and partisan games, supporters can quickly turn on someone who consistently fails to deliver or who tries to take on the crowd at their own game, instead of answering critics on the playing field. There is also a different approach towards anyone who is not regarded as a Durham man.
As mentioned, in 2004 Don Robson retired from the chairmanship and this coincided with a combination of new appointments and local men coming good. While players like Simon Brown and John Wood had reached the fringes of the senior international squad, it was the emergence of Durham born Stephen Harmison and Paul Collingwood as important members of the English team, and with Phil Mustard and Liam Plunket coming into consideration, bringing in Dale Beckenstein as a player and captain, under the direction of Yorkshire’s Martyn Moxon which turned the tide in an almost unbelievable way. It was the irony of ironies that when Yorkshire became desperate having barely survived in Division one of the Championship and successfully pleaded with Martyn to become their Director of Cricket Durham, were reaching their peak and had the excellent Geoff Cooke ready to take over. Geoff has been with Durham from the beginning and was able to continue the momentum created by Martyn with the additional advantage of understanding the nature of Durham Cricket Club and its supporters through and through.
Wednesday was therefore a very important day in the history of the club and in the development of a rivalry between Durham and Yorkshire. Until the last couple of years there was a comradeship from adversity between supporters of the two clubs with a number having dual membership, especially those living in South Durham and North Yorkshire and where with two motor routes it is easier for those in North Yorks to get quickly to the Durham ground than it is for them to get into Leeds.
As with the game on Sunday the wicket was set on the west side of square, restricting the behind the wicket west mini stand to about half the usual size and so with the influx of visitors from Yorkshire I was lucky to have free seats on either side. Given the win on Sunday the travelling Yorkshire fans were in good spirits and optimistic that their team would teach the new championships about rightful places. Although the wicket was good, Durham’s early batsmen had to work hard and four wickets fell before lunch Stoneman for 2 at 20, Du Venuto who had started positively at 41 for 36, Muchall at 69 for 13 and finally captain.
It was only in the afternoon that new signing Ian Blackwell came into his own and was out just five runs short on what would have been his second 100 for his new county. Later and yesterday Phil Mustard moved from playing a supporting to a commanding role but he ran out of team mates after reaching 94. Durham reached a creditable 364, and yesterday when Gale, Vaughan, Rudolph and McGrath were out at 142, it looked as Durham was about to achieve again the dominance of last year. In form Brophy 75 and Bresnan 40 added another 100 for the fifth wicket during which time I came home as the sun had gone in and I was tired having been up a five am with the latest Travel Lodge sale of rooms for £9. However having got both these batsman out Durham start today with the edge hoping to get the last four wickets quickly and take a good first innings lead. I suspect Yorkshire will eek out the runs and everything will depend on the second innings and how the wicket performs on the fourth day.
I used the intervals to take closer look at the new stand and sat in it for a time and it certainly gives a football view of proceedings. The seats are comfortable with good leg room. Yesterday I tool my own high backed folding chair and enjoyed a boundary view which bring an intimate involvement in the game although I was very tired for most of the time given the early rising.
I bought my copy of Tim Wellock’s book Summers with Durham during the luncheon interval on the first day and which he signed to Colin. He is a former player for Durham University and then in local leagues at Tynemouth, Darlington and Sedgefield and then for his true love of village cricket at Aldbrough St John near his home. He was a full time journalist and deputy editor for the Northern Echo before becoming a free lance sport’s writer in 1987 and followed Durham Home and Away since becoming a first class county in 1992 and is able to say he has seen more games than all but a handful of supporters, as well as writing for the Daily and Sunday Telegraph. He has also penned the article on Durham in this year edition of Wisden. I like his story about two supporters who travelled through the night by car to get to Kent for the winning morning last autumn. I had nearly done the same but counselled myself against doing in case it was the kiss of death for the prospects of success although it appeared that only the intervention of the devil would alter the outcome. God was on our side.
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