First Twickenham, now Lords

by Hugh Anderson-Elliott

Durham’s cricketers continued Team Durham’s amazing season last week by qualifying for the Championship final, to be played at Lords on June 27th. In their final two-day match of the season against Loughborough, they earned enough points to ensure that Durham will be represented at the home of cricket.

Durham went into the final match of the season in second place, with only five points separating the top three teams. Once more, as it has been all season, Durham’s batsmen dominated the opposition.

Having bowled Loughborough out for 293 and earning maximum bowling points in the process, the top order put yet another bowling attack to the sword, reaching 303-3 declared and ensuring a comfortable first innings victory. Jones and Westley were in the runs again but it was Durandt who stole the plaudits, hitting yet another century.

Loughborough were then inserted and Durham took the vital fifth wicket late in the day, earning the crucial two points that ensured qualification for the final, at the expense of either Cardiff or Cambridge.

The batting this season has been truly remarkable, with two players breaking the all-time record for number of runs in a season. Fresher Chris Jones, and Luke Durandt formed one of – if not the – most effective opening partnership in University cricket history, both scoring over a thousand runs in the process. Although it was Jones who picked up the award for Sportsman of the Year (for full coverage see page 18) for breaking the record first, Durandt has now surpassed that record with his century last week, finishing the regular season a mere eleven runs ahead with 1064 runs to Jones’s 1053.

The numbers are something to behold. Jones: 1053 runs at an average of 61.94, Durandt: 1064 at an average of 54.30. In addition, Jones’ average in the Centre of Excellence two-day games is a staggering 160.25, largely due to the two spectacular double centuries against Oxford and Cambridge. With Greg Smith having what would in any other year have been a standout season, and skipper Westley also adding runs, Durham’s batsmen have been one of the sporting revelations of the year. In the words of Director of Sport Peter Warburton, “Twickenham in April and Lords in June! It doesn’t get much better than that!”