1797 Durham's Day 2

Having arrived early at the ground, enjoyed a cooked breakfast, read the regional media and found an ideal seat bathed in warm sunshine the immediate departure of Michael DiVenuto on the first ball of the second day of the vital match with Nottingham last Thursday morning was a huge disappointment for him, for me and the rest of the Durham supporters. He had been within 25 runs of the highest ever individual score by a Durham Batsman in the game against Sussex when Durham declared in order to gibe themselves plenty of time to win the game. The previous day he had looked as if he could continue for as long as he chose and 300 was not an unrealistic target. He has had to settled for being the only player to score two two hundreds and now a third and two in a season as well as holding the second highest individual score of all time.

I had been less surprised at the early departure of Captain Will Smith who as he will admit has struggled to score runs over the second half of the season. Hopefully in the last two matches he will feel able to go out and just enjoy himself batting again. However I did not feel the innings was of the team was done as one of the great batsmen in the world had come to the crease. Shivnarine Chanderpaul is a slim man of small build who in the previous match against Somerset was undefeated scoring 117 runs out of a total of 272, rarely hitting the ball above ground level and using the pace of the ball and the flick of the wrist to send it firmly between fielders across the boundary. Like Smith who is also small in build he takes r time and can appear to scrach around the wicket but with Chanderpaul if you doze in the sun you will quickly find that that he reached his first fifty. He come to the crease with the departure of DiVenuto and was joined by Dale Benkenstein, the South African, former Kolpak player who we were used to seeing hit the ball as hard as he could from the first shot. While Chanderpaul was playing his usual magnificent calculated and careful game Benkenstein looked as if he was also under orders to take his time and make maximum use of the situation. The two first achieved the fifth batting point at 401 runs and went onto 450 and then during the afternoon session to 500, 550 and 600 a partnership of over 200 following on the first wicket partnership of 300

Early on I sensed the mood of the team was to achieve a big score, continuing to at least tea time and aiming to surpass the one innings record of 645 runs achieved against Middlesex at Lords, and said so both in the Member’s lounge at the start of the day and again when a discussion about the declaration occurred among spectators behind me. This was not just wishful thinking on my part. First there was the condition of the wicket and the near cloudless sky. Secondly there was the previous day’s bowling performance of Nottinghamshire when few chances had been given by the batsmen. The previous day the Nottinghamshire captain and wicket keeper had dislocated a finger going for a ball to one side. There were reports that it had been broken and was seen with plaster but one of the Nottinghamshire supporters explained that the plaster was used to avoid movement until the necessity of batting.

More significantly the Nottinghamshire bowler, Shrek was also injured after a creditable seven overs for 26 runs with 3 maidens. There was also the incentive of playing and winning before large crowds on the Friday and Saturday although I also expected that Durham would also find it difficult to bowl out Nottinghamshire twice within two days.

My approach was poo pooed except for a man wearing an ECB hat who had not visited the ground before and asked if the crowd was usual for championship games on a weekday. He was of the same opinion that Durham would continue until tea or after and we were both proved right. I cannot now remember if Chanderpaul reached his 100 before that of Benkenstein except that Benkenstein was 99 at tea and therefore the innings would continue into the third session.There might have been three Durham players obtaining 100 runs or more in the same innings but I was confident there had not been four although I did not have my record books with me and I had to wait for the media to confirm that this was so, another momentous achievement in the history of the club.
South African Benkenstein had originally come to England under the legal ruling which allowed professionalc Cricketers from South Africa and a number of West Indian Islands to play in County cricket because their countries had trade agreements with the EEC. Since then the various governing bodies and professional associations have attempted to restrain the flow Benkenstein only took over the captaincy when Mike Hussey was called to international duty by Australia and he then did not require “Kolpak” status when he was found to be eligible for a British Passport. Under his quiet but firm leadership Durham moved from propping up the other clubs to first division status, to winning the Friends Provident Trophy and comings second in the division, onto winning the Championship. He never wanted to be captain and before the first title was won indicated his wish to stand down and for the job to be taken over by Will Smith who had moved from Nottingham. This did not mean his career was coming to an end and he has moved to the North East with his wife and three children, such has been his fulfilment being able to play as he wants but always with the team purpose in mind.

Having had the breakfast and enjoying the sunshine play I did not eat the prepared salad until tea time when I needed a pint of diet Pepsi(£2) and my coat over my knees such was the heat. Beckenstein went on to 105 and Ian Blackwell hit a quick 20 including a six which I lost in the sun until it hit the metal fence before the seating and the flew hitting the seat behind me on the top row. He was out for 29 and then Phil Mustard and Chanderpaul reached the record and the team declared at 648 for six in 171 overs. Patel the spin bowler had to settled for one wicket for 206 runs from his 60 overs.

Now the big question was what would Nottinghamshire do. How would they respond to having spent two days out in the hot sun and experienced such a flow of runs even though the bowling was consistent to good.

It was Mark Davies Durham’s best bowler last year who had then been injured with back problems who took the two wickets which fell before the close with Nottinghamshire needing another 500 odd runs to avoid the following on. This signalled that the game could be over within three days and upset the plans for a family day out on Saturday as the weather continued to be sunny and warm.
I hoped there would be a great public response on both free days. There was a problem in that by Friday the children had gone back to school and most people had used up the their holidays from work for the year during the school holidays. I anticipated that some would take the afternoon off or arrange to leave off work early and there were always those who came for the after lunch or evening session. This had been the situation with me during the period 1955 to 1957 when I worked in central London the other side of the river from the Kennington Oval when Surrey weer in the last years of their seven successive championship wins, a feat which no other club has achieved. I took a few weekday afternoons off to attend county games and would tarvel up from home on Saturdays using the monthly train card to Balham and take the underground to the Kennington Oval from there. As a school before then I had been allowed to go on my own in the summer between the fourth and fifth forms after much persuaion but only now and again although I had an older cousin who would go to the match between Surrey and Middlesex or Yorkshire and who ahd taken me to see the final Test match in 1948, when with 20000 other people we ahd queued to get in with thousands being allowed to sit close together on the grass between the seats and the boundary rope. We had all stood up for the the last innings of Don Bradman and the stood up against as he made his way back to the pavillion as he was out second ball. I would watch cricket on Sundays on mky own at the Wallington Cricket Club and would sometimes meet a relative by ma\rriage to an aunt and his wife whow ere regular visitors at Beddington Cricket Club which played at a higher level at one end of the large park. I sued to spend my summers trying to bowl and bat in the narrow passage at the back of the house in Wallington where I lived until going to the John Fisher school going back to the house where my younger first cousin lived to play with him or in teh local parks, Mellows close tot eh Bandon Hill school where my birth mother worked or at Carshalton where there was a large flat circular amphitheatre ideal for two people playing because one did not have run far after the ball.

Attending most days of most county championship matches this year there are a few familiar faces with wn I chat if we meet in the Member’s lounge or on walk about during the lunch and tea intervals or during my recent efforts to keep active lose weight. There are also ad hoc conversations with those who sit in close proximity including visiting supporters. At the end of the day I commiserated with a couple from the Midlands who like me had remained to the last ball and decided not to rush to car park and the rush to bet back to the Durham Road and the motorway. I commiserated that Friday with all the additional spectators could be a difficult day for visiting supporters because of the increased partisanship, although this has never been evident at teh Riverside during county matches as it is at other grounds, after years of losing and welcoming the county champions to the ground. I cannto rememebr how we got intot he conversation about using Travel Lodge but like the husband of the couple and got up for six oclcock last Janaury with the fixture list and attempted to obtain several days of accommodation in different a[prts of teh countery. They had already been to the Drotiwich Travel Loddge for Worcester and provided some useful information about the Park and Ride scheme which takes one close to the ground. They came fro Soutrhwell with is impsing Minister and which I had visited two years ago during a day when it had rained persistently and there as no play. Friday was likely to prove a great day.