Stoneman, Jennings, Borthwick, Burnham, Stokes, Collingwood, Clark, Poynter, Carse, Wood, Onions. This XI represented Durham in a match played in September 2016 against Surrey when on the last afternoon of the Riverside season Durham won a magnificent match by 21 runs with Stokes bowling his boots off to take 4 wickets. Two weeks later the ECB's hammer fell on Durham relegating them to Division 2 and deducting enough points to make a return to Division 1 virtually impossible the following season. Since that September day Stoneman, Jennings, Borthwick, and Onions have been lured to other counties, Collingwood has retired, Poynter is kept out of the first team by the excellent Eckersley, Stokes and Wood are on England duty which leaves only Burnham, Clark and Carse as part of the team that just after four o'clock yesterday defeated Worcestershire by 109 runs. And I was there, only the second occasion in the last two seasons that I have been present when my native county hit the winning jackpot.
On Monday evening I was on the horns of a trilemma, go to Riverside to see what looked like a Durham win, go to Headingley for a possible Yorkshire victory over Somerset or join two friends in a trip to Queen's Park Chesterfield, never a bad idea at anytime. Blood being thicker than water, or possibly Brampton Ale, I opted for the first and so it was that my friend of nearing fifty years, Alan Pinkney and I took our seats at a sparsely populated ground to see if Durham could dismiss seven Pears' batsmen before close of play. As I have already revealed they were successful but not before we had seen enterprising innings from Barnard and Cox and a last wicket partnership lasting 54 minutes between D'Oliveira and Morris, finally broken when Rushworth bowled the latter to claim his sixth wicket and ten for the match taking him to 55 championship wickets for the campaign, second only to Harmer of Essex.
The 20 points Durham garnered from the game took them to fourth place in the table, just one point off a promotion spot. And all this after losing the first four games of the season since when they have gone undefeated in six, winning four. If there is ever to be a good time to borrow a fiver from me this might be it, but don't count on it.
During the day we became aware that the games at Headingley and Queen's Park had finished but I had spent time at the former on Sunday when Yorkshire laid the foundations for their stunning victory over Somerset which served to knock the West Country men off the top of the table where they have been replaced by Essex. I spent the afternoon session in the top tier of the new north stand from where there is a splendid view but I am aware that not everybody is comfortable sitting so far above Terra Firma. Good work by Brook and Maharaj saw Yorkshire past five hundred and Brook to his hundred before he was well caught on the boundary just below my seat in the crow's nest. That was my signal to join the World Cup bandwagon and I watched the last couple of hours in the company of friends at the house of a neighbour whose accent betrays her Kiwi sympathies. Thank you, Fiona and like your team you were magnanimous in defeat.
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