| Durham County Cricket Club |
Article Index for Durham County |
Articles about Durham County Cricket Club |
Website Links For Durham |
Information AboutDurham County Cricket Club |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT DURHAM COUNTY CRICKET CLUB | |
| history of county durham | |
| english first class cricket teams | |
| sport in county durham | |
| sports clubs established in 1882 | |
Durham County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major County clubs which make up the English domestic Cricket structure, representing the historic county of Durham . Its limited overs team is called the '''Durham Dynamos'''. The club is based at the Riverside Ground in Chester-le-Street . Granted first-class status in 1991 , Durham is English cricket's newest first-class county. The County Ground at the Riverside is also the newest addition to the English Test Match circuit; hosting its first match, England v Zimbabwe in the second Test, from 5 June to 7 June 2003 . Durham CCC is playing in Division One of the LV County Championship , Division Two of the NatWest Pro40 League in 2007 . HONOURS
Division Two Division Two Second XI honours RECORDS EARLIEST CRICKET Cricket probably did not reach Durham until the 18th century. The earliest reference is a game at Raby Castle on or soon after 5 August 1751 between the Earl of Northumberland’s XI and the Duke of Cleveland’s XI. The game was commemorated by a ballad which starts: :::''Durham City has been dull so long,'' :::''No bustle at all to show;'' :::''But now the rage of all the throng'' :::''Is at cricketing to go.'' As it happens, there was a return game soon afterwards at Stanwick, near Richmond, and that is the earliest reference to cricket in Yorkshire . The first recorded match of representative cricket in the county took place in 1848 at Sunderland , between an All England XII and a Bishopwearmouth 22. Despite their extra numbers the cricketers of Bishopwearmouth were comprehensively outplayed as All England's scores of 129 and 143 dwarfed their own 56 and 59. The first team to carry the name of 'Durham County' played an MCC team in 1876 and went on to take on the touring Australians in 1878 , winning by 71 runs, and again in 1880 , losing by an innings and 38 with the great Fred Spofforth taking 17 wickets for 66. ORIGIN OF CLUB Durham CCC was founded as an official entity on and 1984 ; and putting together a record of 65 matches without defeat between 1976 and 1982 that remains unbroken to the present day. DURHAM AS A FIRST-CLASS COUNTY ]] Early in 1989 , the Club began the process of applying to become a first-class cricketing county and join the County Championship . First-class status was awarded on 6 December 1991 , with Durham becoming the first new first-class county for 70 years. Their first season in the County Championship was the 1992 season. Durham have not been distinguished by marked success as a first-class county. In the 2004 season they finished bottom of the two-division County Championship, sixth out of ten teams in the One-day National Cricket League and fifth out of six teams in the Northern Division of the Twenty20 Cup . However in 2005 under the captaincy of Australian Mike Hussey Durham finished second and achieved promotion in both the County Championship and the One-day National Cricket League . Hussey was prevented from returning to the Riverside in 2006 as he is contracted to the Australian international team; and with vice-captain Paul Collingwood away on English international team duty Dale Benkenstein was captain for 2006 . Durham had mixed success in the 2006 season, finishing second in the North Division of the C&G Trophy . However, Durham were poor in the Twenty20 cup, finishing last in the North Division and only managing 2 victories, both against Lancashire. The Pro40 campaign started fairly well, with Durham taking 4 points from the first 4 games with a win, a loss, a tie and a no result. However, several defeats left them needing a win against the champions elect, Essex , in the final game of the season. They managed the victory, but other results did not go their way and they ended up being relegated in 8th place. The Championship season also began with success, but mediocre results in the middle of the season left Durham hanging above the relegation zone by just half a point going into the last game of the season. Durham needed more points than their rivals Yorkshire , but looked in trouble when Darren Lehmann hit a career-best 329 in the first innings. Achieving just one bowling bonus point meant that Durham needed to score 400 without losing more than 5 wickets and then draw the game. In recent times, Durham has seen a number of their top players make an impact on the England side. Collingwood (who is the first Durham CCC player to hit a Test century and double century), Steve Harmison and Liam Plunkett have all established themselves in the national squad. The recent addition of Graham Onions may be a sign that this trend will continue for the foreseeable future and is an indication of Durham's admirable youth system. On August 19th 2007 Durham won their first trophy in First Class County Cricket when they beat Hampshire County Cricket Club in the Final of the Friends Provident Trophy at Lords, which Durham won by 125 runs {Link without Title} . Durham broke the record for most runs scored in the final of a 50 overs tournament by scoring 312-5. Hampshire replied with 187 and were bowled out in 41 overs ensuring that Durham won the tie. THE RIVERSIDE GROUND Main article: Riverside Ground The club's acceptance into First-class Cricket was made conditional on the building of a new Test match-standard cricket ground. Work began on the new ground at the Riverside, a spectacular location overlooked by Lumley Castle , in 1990 , and the ground hosted its first game, Durham v Warwickshire , on 18 May 1995 . Development of the Riverside Ground has continued until the present day, and in 2003 the Riverside Ground was raised to test match status. As of 2007 the ground has been used for three England Test matches, against Zimbabwe in 2003 , Bangladesh in 2005 and West Indies in June 2007 . FRIENDS PROVIDENT TROPHY 2007 During the 2007 season the club won its first major trophy, the Friends Provident Trophy , by beating the 2005 winners Hampshire Hawks in a game which started on 18 August , but finishing a day later due to rain. The toss between Dale Benkenstein and Shane Warne was won by the the latter who sent Durham into bat. Fellow Aussie Michael Di Venuto and Wicket-keeper Phil Mustard opened the batting. Mustard looked strong from ball 1 but Di Venuto was a little shaky and was dismissed by Hampshire's West Indies international Daren Powell and caught by Michael Carberry . Ex-Scotland u-19 captain Kyle Coetzer and Shiv Chanderpaul made significant contributions (61 and 78 respectively), the latter being run-out. Captain Benkenstein made a quickfire 61 off 43 deliveries. Durham finished their innings on 312-5. Michael Lumb and ex-captain John Crawley opened for the Hawks, the latter departing for a diamond duck, caught at second slip by Di Venuto. Zimbabwe an Sean Ervine was next in, immediately edging to second slip in identical fashion leaving Otis Gibson on a Hattrick . Kevin Pietersen survived that ball, but was soon back in the pavillion with 12. John Crawley managed a resilient 68 but was bowled by Paul Collingwood who was to finish with 3-33. The rain came down and play was delayed until the following day. With the fall of Nic Pothas (47) and Dimitri Mascarenhas (12) the tail was exposed and was quickly disposed of with Hampshire finishing on 187, handing Durham a historic win. Veteran Otis Gibson was named man of the match for his spell of 3-24 at the start of the Hampshire innings, which included wickets with his first two deliveries. PLAYERS Since Durham's induction as a first-class county, each player has been allocated a unique squad number. The first 11 numbers were allocated in batting order from the club's first game, and subsequent numbers have been awarded in order of debut. Current Squad The current Durham squad (for the 2007 season) consists of (players with international caps are listed in bold): Previous notable players Other notable cricketers who have played for the club include: SEE ALSO NOTES REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS |
|
|