For the 800th piece of writing since February 2007 I have decided to concentrate on the story of Durham Cricket which led to winning the County Championship two years in succession less that two decades after being elected to the competition. I am using the Ralph Dellor book, Birth of a First Class County which he published through Bloomsbury for £14.99 in 1992, together with The Impossible Dream.... Come True by Tom Moffat MBE published in soft cover through FRO Print and Image Ltd of Birtley in County Durham in August 2009.
The story begins over 100 years ago in South Shields at the County Hotel, still a tavern restaurant close to the Redhead Park and the Marine college on the main road to Sunderland which runs through Cleadon Village and parallel to the coast road. At the meeting it was agreed to invite all the secretaries of cricket clubs in the County to meet at the Three Tuns Hotel in Durham city to consider forming a team to represent the County. Eight clubs were represented at the meeting held two weeks later from Darlington, Durham City and Durham School, Stockton, Gateshead Fell, Whitburn, and from North Durham. I do not know if the grounds at Darlington, Stockton and Gateshead Fell are the same as those which Durham was to use 110 years later and it would be interesting to find out and later in his book Ralph Dellor provided the information. Darlington was established in 1827 ( Fixed seating 900 and temporary 2200 (Stockton established 1816 ( Fixed seats 890 and Temporary 2000) Gateshead Fell 1878 (Fixed 400 and temporary 3500). Durham City played at what is now the University Race Course Ground by the River Wear and which provides views of the Castle and the Cathedral. I have a signed numbered print of a painting of the scene recording when the ground became the principal venue for Durham during the first three years. From the book I learnt that the land had been once owned by the Bishop of Chester. (Established 1835) Seating capacity 1000 and more. The other temporary grounds used by Durham 1992 to 1995 were Hartlepool established 1855 with fixed seating for 1000 and temporary for 2000, and Chester Le Street with permanent seating capacity of 3299 and a total capacity of 4000 and where I watched Dean Jones score 100 against the touring West Indians
In the later 1900’s there was also an arrangement for the new County Team to play Northumberland at Sunderland (Chester Road) One hundred years later Ashbrooke, Sunderland was being canvassed at the permanent location for the new First class County. Of interest that first game was played over two innings and Ralph Dellor has obtained a copy of the original scorecard which was collated by Brian Hunt, Durham’s official scorer, who retires this year and the beneficiary of various social activities to mark his contribution. His work is called 100 Years of Durham County Cricket. I noticed that the Northumberland innings ended at nine wickets before I read the explanation that the team had taken the field after a long delay with a man short. In 1895 Durham shared the Minor County Championship with Norfolk and Worcester. They appeared in the championship tables for 1897 and from 1899 they appeared every year thereafter until 1992 when they became a First Class County. The Championship was headed in 1901 1902 and 1926, 1930, 1976 and they were runner’s up in the next three years. They won again in 1980 1981 and 1984 and this success led to the first bid to join the Championship in the mid 1980’s Ralph also highlights that over the first half of the 20th century Durham was unique in being awarded games against the touring sides from South Africa and West Indies, New Zealand India and the West Indies. The last side to visit was Pakistan in 1962. However for 10 years prior to 1992 the owners of a travel firm Caller Pegasus sponsored a Festival week which attracted cricketers from all over the world.
On the ground floor of the main Pavilion stand at the Riverside which houses the player’s dressing rooms, hospitality boxes, the Administration and the Member’s Lounge, there is a well appointed bar restaurant open to visitors and for Sunday lunch throughout the year. It is called Austin’s and named after Durham’s renowned wicket keeper from 1936 to 1954. He went on to become secretary of the County Committee in 1969 and Chairman in 1975, a position which he held until 1991 when Durham achieved first class status and Don Robson became the chairman. He died in 2007 at the age of 98. Having travelled by car from his home at Yarm to visit the club.
These days there is much speculation how some of the former cricketing greats would have fared with insistence on being lean and agile. I immediately think of FR Brown of Middlesex and Stewart Surrage of Surrey, Colin Cowdrey and particularly at 18 stone, Colin Milburn, who I was amazed to remember played for the minor County side during the mid 1970’s three times. Ian Blackwell follows in the tradition.
It was in 1973 that Durham of the Minor Counties electrified the North East and surprised the Cricket world by beating Yorkshire in the first round of the one day Gillette Cup by 5 wickets. The game was played at Harrogate, a lovely ground where Yorkshire played Durham during the early years of their promotion to the Championship and which I attended. In 1985 Durham beat Derbyshire in what had become the Natwest trophy and these victories led to some contemplating first class championship status..
When Ralph wrote his book some 2500 people had become Members of the new County, with an estimate of 4000 by the end of the year at a time without a permanent ground and club facilities Such was public enthusiasm generated for the plan. I have had difficult in finding the present number but I would be surprised if it more than 3000 although there is talk of trying reach 5000 as a consequence of winning the championship twice in succession. This would be a major step forward as around the world support for the four day game is falling away on the part of some players, administrators with the task of keeping clubs financially solvent and the public who have turned to the shorter on day game, and in particular the 20-20. Ione of the many remarkable aspects of the Durham story is that the club and players are not flying the flag of the County Championship for the rest of the club memberships, although raising the prize money from £100000 to £350000 for the players and adding £150000 for the winning club has obviously been an incentive.
Ralph also wrote about the enthusiasm for professional and amateur sporting activity throughout the region, describing the extent to which winning and losing can effect whole communities as tribal, a term which I have always used with some trepidation as saying tribal to someone’s face is usually interpreted meaning primitivism and a criticism rather that an objective statement about the bonds and loyalty which tends to govern political and social life in the region.
This applies strongly to Sport with the rivalry between Sunderland and Newcastle football fans the foremost. For the first decade and a half of living in the North I was a season ticket holder at Sunderland, choosing the club because it was a short walk from my home and I could hear the roar of the crowd on match days when working in the garden. I remember individuals coming to their front gate to ask the score on the way home and when a team did well, especially against southern sides the mood of the community was lifted and politicians and trade unionist declared that production would go up and down according to the fortunes of the team supported. When Sunderland lost to Newcastle I would find printed cards on my desk which someone had asked my secretary to deliver usually with a coffin and a the short sentence “here lies Sunderland Football club R.I.P. “ At St James’s Park, Newcastle’s home when Sunderland visited it is traditional for the supporters closest to them to rattle bunches of keys because the Sunderland natives are reported to have difficulties pronouncing their E’s. At Durham last week some of the embittered Notts supporters in front of me made sarcastic remarks about the accents of some of the local the Durham players and I was pleased to act as a buffer for the hostility which their comments were greeted. At the end of the 2008 2009 football season Sunderland were defeated at home in the last match but secured their position in the Premiership and there was much singing and dancing in the streets and on public transport immediately after the game. However the cause for wild celebrations in the cities and among Sunderland supporters where ever they lived was that Newcastle had been relegated and the tables had been reversed between the two clubs. However the lesson is that if outsiders attack, especially Southerners, the region unites in common purpose. I heard one Durham Member tell the serving catering staff recently with great glee, “they will hate this, absolutely hate this,” and he then referred to the southerners and interestingly to the Yorkshire club. He was of my generation and now doubt like me had become young again and full of the youthful dreams which the present generation of players was realising.
Brendan Foster the Olympic and National runner made his name at Gateshead where he was employed in the Council’s Culture and Leisure Department. Brendan was also responsible for bringing an International Athletics day for the opening of a new Athletics and sport’s stadium on the main Road from Sunderland and South Shields into Newcastle. What TV viewers were unaware that day is that bank behind the stadium had been painted green and because of rain was streaking so the cameramen were told to only take long shots of this area, such was North East pride and concern to change the image of the region after years of economic decline. I was told the story by a senior Councillor at Gateshead in the bar of a conference in another part of the country. He was a rival of the then Councillor Leader who had previously been in charge of the culture and leisure sector and had been the driving force behind the development of thee Gateshead stadium and supporting Brendan, and had personally given the orders for the former slag heap to be painted over because the grass had not yet come through. I mention this story for three reasons, that nothing used to get done in the North East without significant political support, but that behind the media presentation there was often feuds and rivalries, usually stronger with political parties than between them. The third reason is that Brendan Foster and his media company were employed to promote the Durham bid to become a first class championship county. It was Brendan who realised that motivating the public was important but the bid would fail unless the business and commercial sectors could be persuaded to become significant sponsors. Brendan ensured that all the leading sports and other regional personalities of the day supported the new venture.
Most people who only know the region from Television or occasional work related visits fail to understand that business and commercial interests are entwined in public, recreational and social life in a greater way than elsewhere in the UK other than Ireland, Glasgow the South Wales, Yorkshire and Midland coalfield and heavy industrial areas. They quickly learn not to make the mistake that because someone has a strong regional accent they are not educated or have exceptional wit, including spontaneous and creative humour, They also have usually worked exceptionally hard just to ensure their families survive, provide the backbone for the armed forces, and still practice their religions, albeit with varying degrees of belief. One should not underestimate the significant role which Don Robson played fro as in addition to having been a professional footballer and a cricketer he was the leader of Durham County Council which impacted not only on Chester Le Street Council all the councils in Durham, in Tyne and Wear and Northumberland and who at the time were all of the same political party persuasion.
The appetite for championship cricket had already been created by two men without whom this story would have been told. Ian and Roy Caller had built up a successful Travel firm and used some their profits to support their sporting love of cricket within Northumbria. In1980 Newcastle celebrated 900 years as a city and the brothers agreed to sponsor a match between Northumberland and the visiting West Indies at the small ground in Jesmond. It was full and for the next decade the brothers invited cricketers from around the world to the festival and a full list, a whose who of cricket at that time, s included in Tom Moffat’s Book with Graham Gooch, Alan Lamb and Alan Border attending four years; Ian now Sir Ian Botham, with Kapil Dev and Jarved Miandad, Desmond Haynes, Gordon Greenidge and Michael Holding came for three years. Another visitor was Martyn Moxon from Yorkshire who was to play a leading part in the development of Durham before the recent success. Players found they were well paid and well looked after on their visits to the region and this built up enormous good will when the application for First Class Status was made. Ian Botham signed a contract to play over the first season. Tom Moffat’s book includes a colour photo of a an Old England Cricket team which attended the festival in 1990. The team included Peter May and Tony Lock of Surrey Denis Compton of Middlesex, Godfrey Evans of Kent, Fred Truman of Yorkshire and Ted Dexter, Tom Graveney, Colin Cowdrey, Trevor Bailey, Brian Statham and Reg Simpson, all heroes of my and cricket lover’s youth everywhere in the world.
Ralph Dellor also highlights the importance of Durham University in the development of cricket in the county with perhaps the most important former member of the University team Nassar Hussain who became captain of England. Will Smith the present Durham Captain was also at the City University. Another Durham student who was to play an important role in the early Durham years was Simon Hughes. Dellor lists some 30 individuals who were students who went on the play County Cricket before 1992 and this includes the bowler Frank Tyson.
The fact that so many outstanding cricketers had been available to be watched in the region, and that the Yorkshire ground at Headingley could be reached there and back within a day was potentially a double edged sword when the reality set in that Durham with the best will in the world was a poor side over the first decade of its new status. The reality of championship cricket is very different from the Festival and the Test match. One should not underestimate the challenge of maintaining four day cricket and in this respect Durham becoming a class above the rest may not be a good thing for the long run good of the game. In a short table of nine clubs the margin between winning the championship or being one of the two clubs relegated has been the number of bonus points accumulated for several recent years and this has been all to the good, maintaining interest until the last games of the seasons
I am also indebted to Ralph Dellor for reminding something of the history of the first class championship and that up to this century the administrators of the game were conservative in their approach. He mentions that although the championship proper did not begin until 1895 there were champions from 1864, depending on the number of inter county matches played. The championship was not regulated until 1873. The counties involved until 1895 were Yorkshire, Surrey, Lancashire and Middlesex the main counties when I was a school boy and a young man, together with Nottingham, Kent, Gloucestershire and Sussex who only won the championship for the first time this century. Gloucestershire have never won. In 1895 this select group were joined by Derbyshire, Essex Hampshire Leicestershire and Warwickshire. Worcestershire having won the Minor Counties three years in a row were admitted in 1899. Northampton joined in 1905 and Glamorgan in 1921. That is only two clubs since 1900 and none for seventy years until Durham.
It is nearly two decades since reading the Dellor book and I had forgotten that the first idea before that of Matt Roseberry, mentioned in writing earlier in the week, came from Norman Graham who had played for Kent before returning to his home county of Northumberland His idea in 1983 was to create a new side of Northumbria above the existing two minor county sides thus enabling first class cricketers to play for the county than go elsewhere and presumably brining in players to get the new club off the ground. He and Shropshire who was also interested in becoming a first class county were told by the English Cricket Board to prepare a feasibility study which included the support of everyone likely to be involved. They were told the application would not proceed without unanimity.
It is at this point that I remain unclear about the sequence of events before the first planning committee was formed in 1989. Tom Moffat gives importance to Matt Roseberry, the entrepreneur with two sons playing county cricket. Together with Mike Weston the Rugby International he had created the McEwen’s Indoor cricket centre and where there was office space which could be used for the staff needed for getting the proposed county club off the ground As I understand what happened from Tom’s book Matt approached a number of people on the basis of creating a new club as a commercial operation and separate from the Durham Minor County Committee. One has to ask why this was so? Whatever the reason it is evident that Matt quickly formed an alliance with key members of the Durham Cricket Committee and that Tom Moffat played a key role both in supporting the project and using the staff of his firm to process the application and coordinate the various meetings and actions which were required. In March 1989 the Test and County Cricket Board replied to the initial enquiry which Mr Moffat had written on behalf of the planning committee. The reply did not say yes, nor more significantly did it say no. The service which Mr Moffat has now added to his lifelong contribution in the county is to reproduce the key exchanges of correspondence and reports as well adding comments about the reservations which many felt about a task which involved initially raising £1 million to get the venture off the ground. Impressive is the feasibility document submitted to the ECB which made reference to using other grounds for three years while a purpose developed ground was located and established.
That the vote of the seventeen clubs was sixteen for and one abstention indicates both the goodwill which the planning committee received and the hard work of committee members who made vists to all the championship clubs and spoke to key figures. Getting the go ahead did not mean entry would be automatic and various steps had to be taken to ensure the grounds used over the first three years would be of sufficient standard, that progress for a permanent ground would be dovetailed, required funds raised and players and backroom staff recruited Perhaps the most extraordinary and fortunate decision of all these was on learning of the availability of Geoff Cook following his retirement from playing cricket for Northants Don Robson and Tom Moffat travelled to the Midlands to meet him and offered him an open ended contract as Director of Cricket which would be become full time once the project had become a reality. In terms of individuals being responsible for the championship it was his subsequent work with young players nurturing the likes of the Harmison brothers and Liam Plunket which proved significant as well as his ability to create a genuine sense of team membership among a varied and changing group of competitive individualists. It was therefore understandable and highly appropriate that after the victory on Saturday the players gravitated to the home of Geoff Cook.
Whereas the Dellor book is a factual statement of developments with critical asessments Tom Moffat is able to include stories which only those directly involved know about. One of the best is when they arranged to take representatives of the ECB to the six grounds at which matches would be played so facilities could be inspected and obtain advice about what was required. This involved arranging time table meetings with the clubs for the key people to be present and everything went well until the visit to Darlington when the groundsmen was present with staff but making prepartions for the wintering of the cricket area and who were unaware of the visit and its purpose. As the party approached on to the hallowed square they were greeted with the cry “get off the bloody square.” What is agreed is that everything the ECB advised was undertaken down to buying the right equipment. It is evident that what impressed the governing body was not just the enthusiasm of those involved but their professionalism and willingness to take advice and do everything that was asked of them.
It is also understandable that the first thought of Matt Rosberry had been the use of the Ashbrooke cricket ground in Sunderland as a permanent home for the county given that crowds in excess of 20000 had attended a game when the Australians played against the Minor Counties side at the end of World War II I am still not sure how the idea came to use a sports field on the banks of the River Wear at Chester Le Street with its backdrop of the Lumley Castle Hotel on a hill rising across the river. People have compared the location to that of the ground at Worcester. It was then and is still a large area of land adjacent to a large park and where to the northern side of the stadium there are now allweather sporting facilities created to replace those lost with the arrival of the stadium. There is parking at the ground sufficient for spectators to all kinds of matches except the internationals which will amount to only a handful of days in any year. However while there are bus services from Chester Le Street to Durham, Sunderland and Newcastle as well as a train service, the motor car is the main way visitors can get to and from the location especially for any matches played under floodlights. The location like that at the Rosebowl and other county grounds not based within a city does reduce the potential support. Although I lived some distance from the Oval and from my workplace it was possible to get there by public transport relatively quickly, so it was possible to take an afternoon off during weekdays. While I can get to a seat at the Riverside by car within half an hour if I take the bus the choice is between a long tiring tour of Washington when travelling from South Shields to Chester Le Street and then a long walk or an infrequent bus, or a bus to Sunderland and from there one of two buses to a stop across from the ground, and one of these also takes an around estates route. I have to allow two hours for each way of the journey. There is a similar problem from those who live in the various villages and small towns of County Durham and North Yorkshire. Making the journey once a week in the cricket season is not a problem but for four days in succession followed by a one day match is not practical for many, especially the older members who rely on public transport or lifts. One of the reasons why Newcastle and Sunderland can fill stadiums with capacities of 50000 is their locations in the centre of cities and with a first class public transport system as well as a first class road network.
Having secured the agreement where to play matches over the first three years and a site for a permanent stadium, and a Director of Cricket, the next task was to raise the funds which quickly increased from half a million in the first year to a million and from a quarter to half a million in the following two years. Most of the funds immediately available are said to have been spent on a promotional video arranged by Brendan Foster’s agency and which brought together clips of the Caller festivals and the proposed location of the ground together with support from various North East Personalities including the cricketer Tom Graveney who was born in Niorthumberland. I was excited by the video when it was shown on regional TV programmes. The film ended with a young cricketer being told that one day such a young man might walk out to the wicket at the Riverside to face the then all powerful West Indian Bowling attack. It was Durham’s Paul Collingwood who as a batsman withstood the Australian bowling attack at Glamorgan in the first Ashes Test this year, a performance which prevented defeat and paved the way for the winning of the Ashes back and as Tom Moffat recalls it was Paul who also came out to bat at the Riverside in 2007 against the West Indian team.
Brendan Foster set his sights high proposing that the club concentrate on attracting major sponsors and the interests of business in general as well as building a support base of individual members of the general public. The promotion worked because within hours major sponsors had signed up and others commenced to take out the secondary and third level of involvement. Vice President Status was offered for £25000 a year for 5 years providing advertising, hospitality, parking spaces, memberships and souvenirs, and the opportunity to use players for promotional purposes. For a single outlay of £10000 there was a VIP membership and for £5000 or £1250 a year for five years an individual or small company could receive two life memberships which was exceptional value given the cost of full memberships and charges for individual matches today.
Ordinary membership was set at £60 a year although the original business plan had proposed £100 which was the figure then planned for 1996 when the Chester Le Street Ground was expected to be ready. Individual life Membership was then only £2250. Now twenty years later I only pay £90 for up to 44 days cricket a year. Four Memberships at the reduce price of £25 each are given to the over 100 cricket clubs who are part of the Durham Cricket association. One might have expected this encouragement would be taken up but alas because of work and involvement in the actual playing of cricket the memberships are not used and which explains the decision to open the ground free for the last two days of the championship winning confirmation game against Nottinghamshire. The fund raising drive exceeded estimates with £1.7 million raised and individual Membership before the first ball was bowled stood at over 2500. It is to be hoped that the success of the last three years will have a positive effect on membership and sponsorship
In 1990 1991 there was the question of contracting playing staff who could compete against the other sides in the Championship at their home grounds and at the six temporary venues in the County. I will write about that another day.
The story begins over 100 years ago in South Shields at the County Hotel, still a tavern restaurant close to the Redhead Park and the Marine college on the main road to Sunderland which runs through Cleadon Village and parallel to the coast road. At the meeting it was agreed to invite all the secretaries of cricket clubs in the County to meet at the Three Tuns Hotel in Durham city to consider forming a team to represent the County. Eight clubs were represented at the meeting held two weeks later from Darlington, Durham City and Durham School, Stockton, Gateshead Fell, Whitburn, and from North Durham. I do not know if the grounds at Darlington, Stockton and Gateshead Fell are the same as those which Durham was to use 110 years later and it would be interesting to find out and later in his book Ralph Dellor provided the information. Darlington was established in 1827 ( Fixed seating 900 and temporary 2200 (Stockton established 1816 ( Fixed seats 890 and Temporary 2000) Gateshead Fell 1878 (Fixed 400 and temporary 3500). Durham City played at what is now the University Race Course Ground by the River Wear and which provides views of the Castle and the Cathedral. I have a signed numbered print of a painting of the scene recording when the ground became the principal venue for Durham during the first three years. From the book I learnt that the land had been once owned by the Bishop of Chester. (Established 1835) Seating capacity 1000 and more. The other temporary grounds used by Durham 1992 to 1995 were Hartlepool established 1855 with fixed seating for 1000 and temporary for 2000, and Chester Le Street with permanent seating capacity of 3299 and a total capacity of 4000 and where I watched Dean Jones score 100 against the touring West Indians
In the later 1900’s there was also an arrangement for the new County Team to play Northumberland at Sunderland (Chester Road) One hundred years later Ashbrooke, Sunderland was being canvassed at the permanent location for the new First class County. Of interest that first game was played over two innings and Ralph Dellor has obtained a copy of the original scorecard which was collated by Brian Hunt, Durham’s official scorer, who retires this year and the beneficiary of various social activities to mark his contribution. His work is called 100 Years of Durham County Cricket. I noticed that the Northumberland innings ended at nine wickets before I read the explanation that the team had taken the field after a long delay with a man short. In 1895 Durham shared the Minor County Championship with Norfolk and Worcester. They appeared in the championship tables for 1897 and from 1899 they appeared every year thereafter until 1992 when they became a First Class County. The Championship was headed in 1901 1902 and 1926, 1930, 1976 and they were runner’s up in the next three years. They won again in 1980 1981 and 1984 and this success led to the first bid to join the Championship in the mid 1980’s Ralph also highlights that over the first half of the 20th century Durham was unique in being awarded games against the touring sides from South Africa and West Indies, New Zealand India and the West Indies. The last side to visit was Pakistan in 1962. However for 10 years prior to 1992 the owners of a travel firm Caller Pegasus sponsored a Festival week which attracted cricketers from all over the world.
On the ground floor of the main Pavilion stand at the Riverside which houses the player’s dressing rooms, hospitality boxes, the Administration and the Member’s Lounge, there is a well appointed bar restaurant open to visitors and for Sunday lunch throughout the year. It is called Austin’s and named after Durham’s renowned wicket keeper from 1936 to 1954. He went on to become secretary of the County Committee in 1969 and Chairman in 1975, a position which he held until 1991 when Durham achieved first class status and Don Robson became the chairman. He died in 2007 at the age of 98. Having travelled by car from his home at Yarm to visit the club.
These days there is much speculation how some of the former cricketing greats would have fared with insistence on being lean and agile. I immediately think of FR Brown of Middlesex and Stewart Surrage of Surrey, Colin Cowdrey and particularly at 18 stone, Colin Milburn, who I was amazed to remember played for the minor County side during the mid 1970’s three times. Ian Blackwell follows in the tradition.
It was in 1973 that Durham of the Minor Counties electrified the North East and surprised the Cricket world by beating Yorkshire in the first round of the one day Gillette Cup by 5 wickets. The game was played at Harrogate, a lovely ground where Yorkshire played Durham during the early years of their promotion to the Championship and which I attended. In 1985 Durham beat Derbyshire in what had become the Natwest trophy and these victories led to some contemplating first class championship status..
When Ralph wrote his book some 2500 people had become Members of the new County, with an estimate of 4000 by the end of the year at a time without a permanent ground and club facilities Such was public enthusiasm generated for the plan. I have had difficult in finding the present number but I would be surprised if it more than 3000 although there is talk of trying reach 5000 as a consequence of winning the championship twice in succession. This would be a major step forward as around the world support for the four day game is falling away on the part of some players, administrators with the task of keeping clubs financially solvent and the public who have turned to the shorter on day game, and in particular the 20-20. Ione of the many remarkable aspects of the Durham story is that the club and players are not flying the flag of the County Championship for the rest of the club memberships, although raising the prize money from £100000 to £350000 for the players and adding £150000 for the winning club has obviously been an incentive.
Ralph also wrote about the enthusiasm for professional and amateur sporting activity throughout the region, describing the extent to which winning and losing can effect whole communities as tribal, a term which I have always used with some trepidation as saying tribal to someone’s face is usually interpreted meaning primitivism and a criticism rather that an objective statement about the bonds and loyalty which tends to govern political and social life in the region.
This applies strongly to Sport with the rivalry between Sunderland and Newcastle football fans the foremost. For the first decade and a half of living in the North I was a season ticket holder at Sunderland, choosing the club because it was a short walk from my home and I could hear the roar of the crowd on match days when working in the garden. I remember individuals coming to their front gate to ask the score on the way home and when a team did well, especially against southern sides the mood of the community was lifted and politicians and trade unionist declared that production would go up and down according to the fortunes of the team supported. When Sunderland lost to Newcastle I would find printed cards on my desk which someone had asked my secretary to deliver usually with a coffin and a the short sentence “here lies Sunderland Football club R.I.P. “ At St James’s Park, Newcastle’s home when Sunderland visited it is traditional for the supporters closest to them to rattle bunches of keys because the Sunderland natives are reported to have difficulties pronouncing their E’s. At Durham last week some of the embittered Notts supporters in front of me made sarcastic remarks about the accents of some of the local the Durham players and I was pleased to act as a buffer for the hostility which their comments were greeted. At the end of the 2008 2009 football season Sunderland were defeated at home in the last match but secured their position in the Premiership and there was much singing and dancing in the streets and on public transport immediately after the game. However the cause for wild celebrations in the cities and among Sunderland supporters where ever they lived was that Newcastle had been relegated and the tables had been reversed between the two clubs. However the lesson is that if outsiders attack, especially Southerners, the region unites in common purpose. I heard one Durham Member tell the serving catering staff recently with great glee, “they will hate this, absolutely hate this,” and he then referred to the southerners and interestingly to the Yorkshire club. He was of my generation and now doubt like me had become young again and full of the youthful dreams which the present generation of players was realising.
Brendan Foster the Olympic and National runner made his name at Gateshead where he was employed in the Council’s Culture and Leisure Department. Brendan was also responsible for bringing an International Athletics day for the opening of a new Athletics and sport’s stadium on the main Road from Sunderland and South Shields into Newcastle. What TV viewers were unaware that day is that bank behind the stadium had been painted green and because of rain was streaking so the cameramen were told to only take long shots of this area, such was North East pride and concern to change the image of the region after years of economic decline. I was told the story by a senior Councillor at Gateshead in the bar of a conference in another part of the country. He was a rival of the then Councillor Leader who had previously been in charge of the culture and leisure sector and had been the driving force behind the development of thee Gateshead stadium and supporting Brendan, and had personally given the orders for the former slag heap to be painted over because the grass had not yet come through. I mention this story for three reasons, that nothing used to get done in the North East without significant political support, but that behind the media presentation there was often feuds and rivalries, usually stronger with political parties than between them. The third reason is that Brendan Foster and his media company were employed to promote the Durham bid to become a first class championship county. It was Brendan who realised that motivating the public was important but the bid would fail unless the business and commercial sectors could be persuaded to become significant sponsors. Brendan ensured that all the leading sports and other regional personalities of the day supported the new venture.
Most people who only know the region from Television or occasional work related visits fail to understand that business and commercial interests are entwined in public, recreational and social life in a greater way than elsewhere in the UK other than Ireland, Glasgow the South Wales, Yorkshire and Midland coalfield and heavy industrial areas. They quickly learn not to make the mistake that because someone has a strong regional accent they are not educated or have exceptional wit, including spontaneous and creative humour, They also have usually worked exceptionally hard just to ensure their families survive, provide the backbone for the armed forces, and still practice their religions, albeit with varying degrees of belief. One should not underestimate the significant role which Don Robson played fro as in addition to having been a professional footballer and a cricketer he was the leader of Durham County Council which impacted not only on Chester Le Street Council all the councils in Durham, in Tyne and Wear and Northumberland and who at the time were all of the same political party persuasion.
The appetite for championship cricket had already been created by two men without whom this story would have been told. Ian and Roy Caller had built up a successful Travel firm and used some their profits to support their sporting love of cricket within Northumbria. In1980 Newcastle celebrated 900 years as a city and the brothers agreed to sponsor a match between Northumberland and the visiting West Indies at the small ground in Jesmond. It was full and for the next decade the brothers invited cricketers from around the world to the festival and a full list, a whose who of cricket at that time, s included in Tom Moffat’s Book with Graham Gooch, Alan Lamb and Alan Border attending four years; Ian now Sir Ian Botham, with Kapil Dev and Jarved Miandad, Desmond Haynes, Gordon Greenidge and Michael Holding came for three years. Another visitor was Martyn Moxon from Yorkshire who was to play a leading part in the development of Durham before the recent success. Players found they were well paid and well looked after on their visits to the region and this built up enormous good will when the application for First Class Status was made. Ian Botham signed a contract to play over the first season. Tom Moffat’s book includes a colour photo of a an Old England Cricket team which attended the festival in 1990. The team included Peter May and Tony Lock of Surrey Denis Compton of Middlesex, Godfrey Evans of Kent, Fred Truman of Yorkshire and Ted Dexter, Tom Graveney, Colin Cowdrey, Trevor Bailey, Brian Statham and Reg Simpson, all heroes of my and cricket lover’s youth everywhere in the world.
Ralph Dellor also highlights the importance of Durham University in the development of cricket in the county with perhaps the most important former member of the University team Nassar Hussain who became captain of England. Will Smith the present Durham Captain was also at the City University. Another Durham student who was to play an important role in the early Durham years was Simon Hughes. Dellor lists some 30 individuals who were students who went on the play County Cricket before 1992 and this includes the bowler Frank Tyson.
The fact that so many outstanding cricketers had been available to be watched in the region, and that the Yorkshire ground at Headingley could be reached there and back within a day was potentially a double edged sword when the reality set in that Durham with the best will in the world was a poor side over the first decade of its new status. The reality of championship cricket is very different from the Festival and the Test match. One should not underestimate the challenge of maintaining four day cricket and in this respect Durham becoming a class above the rest may not be a good thing for the long run good of the game. In a short table of nine clubs the margin between winning the championship or being one of the two clubs relegated has been the number of bonus points accumulated for several recent years and this has been all to the good, maintaining interest until the last games of the seasons
I am also indebted to Ralph Dellor for reminding something of the history of the first class championship and that up to this century the administrators of the game were conservative in their approach. He mentions that although the championship proper did not begin until 1895 there were champions from 1864, depending on the number of inter county matches played. The championship was not regulated until 1873. The counties involved until 1895 were Yorkshire, Surrey, Lancashire and Middlesex the main counties when I was a school boy and a young man, together with Nottingham, Kent, Gloucestershire and Sussex who only won the championship for the first time this century. Gloucestershire have never won. In 1895 this select group were joined by Derbyshire, Essex Hampshire Leicestershire and Warwickshire. Worcestershire having won the Minor Counties three years in a row were admitted in 1899. Northampton joined in 1905 and Glamorgan in 1921. That is only two clubs since 1900 and none for seventy years until Durham.
It is nearly two decades since reading the Dellor book and I had forgotten that the first idea before that of Matt Roseberry, mentioned in writing earlier in the week, came from Norman Graham who had played for Kent before returning to his home county of Northumberland His idea in 1983 was to create a new side of Northumbria above the existing two minor county sides thus enabling first class cricketers to play for the county than go elsewhere and presumably brining in players to get the new club off the ground. He and Shropshire who was also interested in becoming a first class county were told by the English Cricket Board to prepare a feasibility study which included the support of everyone likely to be involved. They were told the application would not proceed without unanimity.
It is at this point that I remain unclear about the sequence of events before the first planning committee was formed in 1989. Tom Moffat gives importance to Matt Roseberry, the entrepreneur with two sons playing county cricket. Together with Mike Weston the Rugby International he had created the McEwen’s Indoor cricket centre and where there was office space which could be used for the staff needed for getting the proposed county club off the ground As I understand what happened from Tom’s book Matt approached a number of people on the basis of creating a new club as a commercial operation and separate from the Durham Minor County Committee. One has to ask why this was so? Whatever the reason it is evident that Matt quickly formed an alliance with key members of the Durham Cricket Committee and that Tom Moffat played a key role both in supporting the project and using the staff of his firm to process the application and coordinate the various meetings and actions which were required. In March 1989 the Test and County Cricket Board replied to the initial enquiry which Mr Moffat had written on behalf of the planning committee. The reply did not say yes, nor more significantly did it say no. The service which Mr Moffat has now added to his lifelong contribution in the county is to reproduce the key exchanges of correspondence and reports as well adding comments about the reservations which many felt about a task which involved initially raising £1 million to get the venture off the ground. Impressive is the feasibility document submitted to the ECB which made reference to using other grounds for three years while a purpose developed ground was located and established.
That the vote of the seventeen clubs was sixteen for and one abstention indicates both the goodwill which the planning committee received and the hard work of committee members who made vists to all the championship clubs and spoke to key figures. Getting the go ahead did not mean entry would be automatic and various steps had to be taken to ensure the grounds used over the first three years would be of sufficient standard, that progress for a permanent ground would be dovetailed, required funds raised and players and backroom staff recruited Perhaps the most extraordinary and fortunate decision of all these was on learning of the availability of Geoff Cook following his retirement from playing cricket for Northants Don Robson and Tom Moffat travelled to the Midlands to meet him and offered him an open ended contract as Director of Cricket which would be become full time once the project had become a reality. In terms of individuals being responsible for the championship it was his subsequent work with young players nurturing the likes of the Harmison brothers and Liam Plunket which proved significant as well as his ability to create a genuine sense of team membership among a varied and changing group of competitive individualists. It was therefore understandable and highly appropriate that after the victory on Saturday the players gravitated to the home of Geoff Cook.
Whereas the Dellor book is a factual statement of developments with critical asessments Tom Moffat is able to include stories which only those directly involved know about. One of the best is when they arranged to take representatives of the ECB to the six grounds at which matches would be played so facilities could be inspected and obtain advice about what was required. This involved arranging time table meetings with the clubs for the key people to be present and everything went well until the visit to Darlington when the groundsmen was present with staff but making prepartions for the wintering of the cricket area and who were unaware of the visit and its purpose. As the party approached on to the hallowed square they were greeted with the cry “get off the bloody square.” What is agreed is that everything the ECB advised was undertaken down to buying the right equipment. It is evident that what impressed the governing body was not just the enthusiasm of those involved but their professionalism and willingness to take advice and do everything that was asked of them.
It is also understandable that the first thought of Matt Rosberry had been the use of the Ashbrooke cricket ground in Sunderland as a permanent home for the county given that crowds in excess of 20000 had attended a game when the Australians played against the Minor Counties side at the end of World War II I am still not sure how the idea came to use a sports field on the banks of the River Wear at Chester Le Street with its backdrop of the Lumley Castle Hotel on a hill rising across the river. People have compared the location to that of the ground at Worcester. It was then and is still a large area of land adjacent to a large park and where to the northern side of the stadium there are now allweather sporting facilities created to replace those lost with the arrival of the stadium. There is parking at the ground sufficient for spectators to all kinds of matches except the internationals which will amount to only a handful of days in any year. However while there are bus services from Chester Le Street to Durham, Sunderland and Newcastle as well as a train service, the motor car is the main way visitors can get to and from the location especially for any matches played under floodlights. The location like that at the Rosebowl and other county grounds not based within a city does reduce the potential support. Although I lived some distance from the Oval and from my workplace it was possible to get there by public transport relatively quickly, so it was possible to take an afternoon off during weekdays. While I can get to a seat at the Riverside by car within half an hour if I take the bus the choice is between a long tiring tour of Washington when travelling from South Shields to Chester Le Street and then a long walk or an infrequent bus, or a bus to Sunderland and from there one of two buses to a stop across from the ground, and one of these also takes an around estates route. I have to allow two hours for each way of the journey. There is a similar problem from those who live in the various villages and small towns of County Durham and North Yorkshire. Making the journey once a week in the cricket season is not a problem but for four days in succession followed by a one day match is not practical for many, especially the older members who rely on public transport or lifts. One of the reasons why Newcastle and Sunderland can fill stadiums with capacities of 50000 is their locations in the centre of cities and with a first class public transport system as well as a first class road network.
Having secured the agreement where to play matches over the first three years and a site for a permanent stadium, and a Director of Cricket, the next task was to raise the funds which quickly increased from half a million in the first year to a million and from a quarter to half a million in the following two years. Most of the funds immediately available are said to have been spent on a promotional video arranged by Brendan Foster’s agency and which brought together clips of the Caller festivals and the proposed location of the ground together with support from various North East Personalities including the cricketer Tom Graveney who was born in Niorthumberland. I was excited by the video when it was shown on regional TV programmes. The film ended with a young cricketer being told that one day such a young man might walk out to the wicket at the Riverside to face the then all powerful West Indian Bowling attack. It was Durham’s Paul Collingwood who as a batsman withstood the Australian bowling attack at Glamorgan in the first Ashes Test this year, a performance which prevented defeat and paved the way for the winning of the Ashes back and as Tom Moffat recalls it was Paul who also came out to bat at the Riverside in 2007 against the West Indian team.
Brendan Foster set his sights high proposing that the club concentrate on attracting major sponsors and the interests of business in general as well as building a support base of individual members of the general public. The promotion worked because within hours major sponsors had signed up and others commenced to take out the secondary and third level of involvement. Vice President Status was offered for £25000 a year for 5 years providing advertising, hospitality, parking spaces, memberships and souvenirs, and the opportunity to use players for promotional purposes. For a single outlay of £10000 there was a VIP membership and for £5000 or £1250 a year for five years an individual or small company could receive two life memberships which was exceptional value given the cost of full memberships and charges for individual matches today.
Ordinary membership was set at £60 a year although the original business plan had proposed £100 which was the figure then planned for 1996 when the Chester Le Street Ground was expected to be ready. Individual life Membership was then only £2250. Now twenty years later I only pay £90 for up to 44 days cricket a year. Four Memberships at the reduce price of £25 each are given to the over 100 cricket clubs who are part of the Durham Cricket association. One might have expected this encouragement would be taken up but alas because of work and involvement in the actual playing of cricket the memberships are not used and which explains the decision to open the ground free for the last two days of the championship winning confirmation game against Nottinghamshire. The fund raising drive exceeded estimates with £1.7 million raised and individual Membership before the first ball was bowled stood at over 2500. It is to be hoped that the success of the last three years will have a positive effect on membership and sponsorship
In 1990 1991 there was the question of contracting playing staff who could compete against the other sides in the Championship at their home grounds and at the six temporary venues in the County. I will write about that another day.
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