The lost train

Posted by John Winn

By Friday of this week Durham will have completed 25% of their County Championship fixtures and it will still be April. Their form has been difficult to assess, one win, one draw, one defeat and the usual crop of injuries. Today's opponents, Warwickshire have made an excellent start with two victories and top the early table with Lancashire. Their outstanding player has been opening batsman Varun Chopra with a double century in each match.
The scorecard indicated that Durham's captain Phil Mustard would make his first championship appearance of the season but in the event Richardson was behind the stumps. The wicket looked placid and Chopra and Westwood made good progress until Westwoood was caught behind, a decision with which he clearly disagreed. When does reluctance to leave the crease become dissent? Chopra followed shortly afterwards for 23, about 200 fewer than usual and three wickets would have been down by lunch had not Richardson dropped a regulation chance when Porterfield was on one.
Yousuf did not last long after the interval being dismissed in the same manner as Westwood. In one respect he did out do the opener, namely by lingering even longer after the umpire gave him out. He was given some helpful pointers from the crowd as to the whereabouts of the dressing room. At 116 for 3 Durham seemed to have the advantage but soon let it slip away. Some woeful bowling from Stokes (5-0-50-0)
helped Porterfield and Troughton get underway and Durham's cricket went rather flat until tea.
Durham managed to take back some of the initiative after tea thanks to a good spell by Brathwaite who finshed the day with 4 for 50 as The Bears closed on 345 for 7, which given their position at tea they might feel is rather disappointing. Brathwaite played in the last match of the 2010 season for Durham and impressed sufficently to be given a contract. With five wickets in the second innings against Sussex last week and four today he has made a promising beginning, let's hope he doesn't join the ranks of Durham's injured pacemen.
One disappointing piece of news I learned today is that with effect from May 22nd when the summer rail timetable begins the 10:00am train from York (9;27 from Leeds and 10:37 from Darlington) which arrives at Chester-le Street at 10;57 will be no more. The alternatives are either expensive or inconvenient or both. Fortunately the return journey provision is largely unaffected with southbound journeys at 16:24, 17:11, 17:41 and 19:01.