To the land of the Prince Bishops

Posted by John Winn

A forty five minute journey by train from York took me to Durham for a fifty over friendly between the University and Durham II.I enjoyed the walk from the station to the racecourse ground which took me past the flat where I spent a year as student in the sixties and past The Dun Cow pub where I also spent time during that year. With permanent seating for twelve people it is difficult to imagine that the ground, from where can see both the cathedral and the jail, hosted a crowd of six thousand, described by Wisden as 'excited', for Durham's first match in the Sunday League in 1992. When I arrived, about fifteen minutes before the start of play, six would have been a reasonable estimate of the number of spectators.
The county side had a number of experienced players including Will Smith, Kyle Coetzer, Harmison the younger and skipper Gareth Breeze. This time last year Smith was captain of the county champions, twelve months on he enjoyed a generous mixture of long hops and full tosses to rattle up 61 in good time. The student bowlers did restore some measure of control until Harmison took full advantage of a short legside boundary to hit four sixes and with good support from Breeze Durham reached 306 in their 50 overs.
Although Graham Onions is not expected to be fully fit until midsummer, his class was evident from the first ball he bowled and he took three for twenty five off his ten overs. After a poor start the university recovered well and eventually finished 57 runs short. Amongst the Durham wicket takers was Jonny Killeen, son of Neil who is now on Durham's coaching staff and there in that capacity today.
Of the University eleven I can tell you nothing. There was no team sheet and there was no public address, too much to ask for an MCC Centre of Excellence?