A winter warmer

posted by John Winn

With the other seven championship matches concluded on Wednesday there could have been an anti-climatic end to the county cricket season but the weather and the cricket at The Oval combined to present first class cricket at its best and served to remind those would see its presence in the calendar diminished even further that it can provide tension to match any other sporting event. Watching the last few overs on tv yesterday afternoon and rooting for Essex gave me a glow that will last well into winter. But I get ahead of myself for I must start by mentioning  three days spent at The Riverside where Durham lost a match on Wednesday evening that since Monday morning they had looked like winning. A family celebration meant I had to leave at tea and thus missed Paul Collingwood's last first class innings, indeed he was dismissed just as I turned on my car radio at Northallerton station, bowled by what sounded like a 'worm burner'. I was, however, present when he led his team out on Monday morning through a guard of honour formed by Middlesex players and there were several opportunities during the three days to applaud his efforts.

The Riverside match in some ways followed the pattern of the game at The Oval: a team bowled out cheaply (121), the team batting second gets a decent score (310), the team batting third gets enough(355) to set a manageable but by no means easy target (167). Alas this time the team batting last are bowled out on a wicket showing a feisty side to its nature. Wouldn't we have loved it if Collingwood had done a ten Doeschate and seen Durham home by one wicket with a beleaguered Rushworth* at the non strikers end?

Last word on the Riverside game has to be of  the incident on Wednesday afternoon when Harris had to leave the field suffering from concussion and we learnt, and apart from a vociferous gentleman next to me must of us were not aware of the regulation, and he was wrong, that in these circumstances the injured player can be replaced not just in the field but also in batting and bowling. Umpires Gough and O'Shaugnessy sought advice from Lords but nobody was available and they decided that Harris, a pace bowler could be replaced by Rayner, a spinner. In the event Rayner scored only two, and didn't bowl but took three slip catches and as John Gawthrope has pointed out Olly is regarded as one of the finest 'slippers' on the circuit. Fine leg at both ends next time.

* Durham's player of the year