Because of a late start yesterday I eschewed the choo choo and drove to Chester le Street arriving thirty minutes after the start of play to find Durham building on their lead over Derbyshire to the point where even if Joe Root had been whisked away from Trent Bridge and transferred to Derbyshire a home defeat seemed out of the question. Keaton (I would love to call him Buster but he is far too lean for that) Jennings duly passed his 93 of the first innings and a slightly hurried single brought him to his maiden championship century. As one who called for his promotion twelve months ago I have been delighted by his progress this season and his dismissal shortly after lunch was the signal for Stoneman to declare.
Derbyshire were left with 473 needed for their first victory of the season and although I suppose it is obligatory for the captain and or coach to deliver some encouraging words before starting such an impossible task I think even the great motivators would have struggled with this challenge. In my mind Karl Krikken, the Derbyshire coach, is best remembered for his cry of 'bowling' when he was the county's wicket keeper, not much use in these circumstances. Whatever was said didn't seem to cut the mustard because before tea Derbyshire were reduced to 49 for 5, a low point sufficient to silence even the small group of their supporters seated in front of me. Finally, and all this came after 113 all out on Wednesday some resistance was offered when Chanderpaul was joined by Poynton and they added 98 for the sixth wicket until Rushworth snared 'Shiv' and when Breeze had Wainwright lbw the possibility of it all being wrapped up before stumps seemed on. It was not to be and the bails were removed at 6:15.
During the lunch interval I visited the excellent second hand book shop in the media centre and for less than the price of a pint purchased a biography of Tich Freeman, the legendary leg spinner of the inter war years. How nice it was on my way back to my seat to fall into conversation with a ninety year old man, a regular at The Riverside and who remembers seeing Freeman play at Sunderland in 1931. When you are 90 who will you remember watching?
With Durham needing to take only three wickets for victory few would have made the journey this morning but our Hartlepool correspondent suffered a cancelled train and arrived fifteen minutes late, precisely the moment when Footitt's stumps were wrecked by Stokes to complete Durham's fifth win of the season .Unfortunately Mr Taylerson had not got within viewing distance of the cricket. The victory moves Durham into second place behind Sussex who they have to yet play this season. Interesting.
In Tuesday's blog I rather short changed the Bunbury Festival at Durham in two weeks time. The finals are not on Wednesday for there is cricket on both Thursday and Friday at the Racecourse, Maiden Castle and the ground of Durham City. I will give full details in a future posting.
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