Durham claimed their first piece of silverware since gaining First-Class status this weekend - but they had to beat the weather as well as opponents Hampshire to do it. Chief Sports Writer Scott Wilson was at Lord's to witness two days of boundaries, beer and brollies.

THEY came, they saw, they conquered - and then they desperately searched for a hotel room so they could come back and do it all over again.

For the hardiest of North-East cricket fans, the biggest day in Durham's history turned into one of the longest weekends of their lives.

Only cricket could dream up a system whereby a showpiece one-day final suddenly became a two-day endurance marathon. Only North-Easterners could shrug off the resultant inconvenience and refuse to allow the weather to rain on Durham's parade.

"I think I've probably spent about £600 on this weekend now," said Ryan Dobson, a Trimdon resident who should have been pulling into Durham station at one minute after midnight on Sunday, but instead found himself wandering along Edgware Road in search of a hotel.

"There are three of us down here and we thought about calling it a day when play was abandoned on Saturday night.

"To be honest, we probably should have done. But when you've watched them come so close to lifting a trophy, you've got to stay to the Sunday and see it through."

The Trimdon trio, though, were in a minority. For most Durham fans, the club's successful Friends Provident Trophy campaign reached a crescendo on Saturday night.

They might not have seen captain Dale Benkenstein lift Durham's maiden First-Class trophy above his head, but they returned to the North-East having witnessed their county come of age.

And they did so in numbers that shamed the doubters who had claimed that Durham boasted neither the pedigree nor the passion to support a fully-fledged First-Class side.

From Murton to Morpeth and Crook to Cramlington, almost 8,500 descended on the home of English cricket. Two had even come from Majorca, cutting short a two-week holiday to laud it at Lord's.

"We went to three of the group games, so we didn't really want to miss this," explained Sharon Kerr, an exiled cricket nut now living in Leeds.

After all, in 131 years of existence, Durham County Cricket club had never previously made it to a final at Lord's.

That accounted for the excitement that coursed through Durham supporters on Saturday, and also explained the rapid start made by the players on the pitch. After waiting for more than a century, it was the moment to make up for lost time.

So while Sunderland-born Phil Mustard set about dismantling the Hampshire attack, groups of red-and-white clad spectators also took up the challenge of doing what they do best. Drinking, watching and making merry.

Sometimes that meant enhancing the atmosphere in the stands, sometimes it meant congregating on the practice ground behind the Compton Stand to make the most of the sunshine in front a giant television screen.

Bizarrely, the screen suffered from a two-second delay, so when Ottis Gibson claimed a wicket with the first ball of the Hampshire innings, the roar from the stand spoke for more than the pictures.

When exactly the same thing happened with Gibson's second ball, it was more than some supporters could take. "This beer must be stronger than I thought," laughed one Durham fan. "Either that or I can predict the future."

Unfortunately, of course, it was hardly difficult to predict that the future would involve rain. It stayed away for most of the day, but when it finally began to fall at 5.30pm, Durham hearts sank with it.

"It's a shame we didn't see them win it today, but I suppose that's cricket," said John Martin, head of a family group of four from Peterlee. "It's not the ideal scenario, but it's certainly better than watching Durham lose."

The Hampshire fans huddling under an umbrella next to him could certainly vouch for that.