Two very different days at the cricket.

Posted by Tony Hutton

Thursday 11th April and off we go again up the A1 to Chester-le-Street for another county championship match - Durham v Sussex at the Riverside. Both sides had lost their opening matches last week, Durham at Derby and rather more surprisingly Sussex had been beaten at Hove by Leicestershire. All the pre-match discussions seemed to centre around the first appearance of Durham's new captain, Cameron Bancroft, the Australian Test player who has just served a long suspension from the game for ball tampering.

A controversial decision, to say the least, to appoint him as county captain but it appears there were no other volunteers amongst Durham's regulars. A bevy of cameramen had gathered to capture his entrance but they had to wait as Durham, having been put in by Sussex, opened with Lees and Cameron Steel. They did not have to wait too long as Steel was clean bowled by Ollie Robinson in the ninth over of the day when only eight runs had been scored.

Bancroft makes his entrance while some concentrate on their ice creams.

Enter Bancroft to what might be described as generous applause, noticeably not shared by everyone. He soon lost the other opener, Alex Lees, bowled by the Pakistani Hamza for 12 and Durham were struggling at 12-2. It is difficult to describe Bancroft's innings. Some might say he was getting used to English conditions, but he has played here before with Gloucestershire. Others might say he was completely focused on making a success in his new role. Whatever the reason Durham did not lose another wicket before lunch but scored very few runs in the process. The lunch score was 56-2 and it is fair to say that we saw more action in our lunchtime walk in the park.

The patient spectators await the start of the afternoon session.

Sadly it was more of the same during the afternoon, although pleasantly warm out of the wind and sitting in the sunshine. Bancroft virtually dropped anchor and with the South African Harte showing little inclination to increase the scoring rate it was certainly far from the expectations of the first day of the season for most of the spectators. Harte was eventually bowled by the persevering Robinson for 18 with the score on 63-3 after 38 overs. The slow scoring took me back to my boyhood days when such performances inevitably brought on the slow handclap from the crowd at Edgbaston.

An international feel on and off the field, as a South African and Australian go out to bat for Durham.

Bancroft was joined briefly by Jack Burnham, so we had the un-edifying sight of two players together who have both served long suspensions from the game for very different indiscretions. The partnership failed to prosper as Burnham became another Robinson victim, lbw for nought at the same total.This brought in another newcomer in the shape of Ned Eckersley, from Leicestershire.
When he got off the mark with a single, soon followed by a boundary, I felt I could hear distant applause from the direction of Market Harborough.

Bancroft was finally out for 33, caught at slip by Jordan off Wieze, after a marathon innings of three hours and ten minutes. It was an innings that Fred Gardner of Warwickshire would have been proud of back in the great days of the 1950s. One can only hope that Bancroft's performances will improve as the season progresses. Fortunately for the very patient spectators things improved after tea with a fine partnership between Eckersley and Liam Trevaskis, the very promising left handed all-rounder.
At the end of the day Durham had made a paltry 210-8 in 96 overs.

Compensation when we arrived home, the 2019 Wisden takes its place on the shelves.

The following day at Leeds University's ground at Weetwood we had some very different entertainment in a BUCS 50 overs a side game between Leeds/Bradford and Oxford University.
Loads of runs, including two centuries and an exciting finish, but with a very cold wind which made us watch the majority of the day from the car.

Seward goes to his century.

Oxford batted first and the star of the show was very much their captain and wicket keeper James Seward, a native of Preston, Lancashire who has played for Cheshire and for Somerset seconds. He batted almost throughout the Oxford innings before being caught for a splendid 110. The other main contributor batting at number five was Harry Adair, a Shrewsbury schoolboy who has played for Durham seconds. He made a very useful 66 not out from a final score of 263-4 against eight different bowlers for Leeds/Bradford.

Century maker James Seward returns to the pavilion.

Taylor Cornall, from Lancashire, and Ollie Batchelor, from Surrey who plays club cricket for York, opened the batting and started off in fine style. The kept the run rate ahead of the required rate from the outset and put on 71 together before Cornall was stumped for 25. Dahl and Ashraf both went cheaply and the innings stuttered a little at 98-3. However Batchelor continued on his merry way to a splendid century. He was given good support by both Ironside (22) and Killoran (28) but the run rate at the end was up to over seven an over and Oxford were still in the game.

Batchelor reaches his century.

In fact with three overs remaining 26 more runs were required with six wickets down - still anybody's game. Batchelor managed to regain control and after eleven runs from the 48th over, hit a six in the 49th and made the winning hit from the last ball of the penultimate over to finish on 131 not out.
Great entertainment and good reward for the faithful few spectators.

Match winner Ollie Batchelor takes the applause.