Durham Diary

Durham yesterday paid their first visit to what is generally regarded as county cricket's most picturesque venue after travelling down to Sussex on Saturday evening from Wantage Road.

Northampton's ground has improved greatly since the days when they overlapped with the Cobblers. But it always takes me half an hour on the first morning to find, hemmed in, as it is, in streets of terraced houses.

At Arundel the only building in sight, apart from a glimpse of the castle through the trees, is the wooden pavilion. Yes it's picturesque, but it's the sheer tranquillity which is most striking. It's not as atmospheric as Scarborough, or necessarily any more pleasing than the Durham University ground. Unless you absolutely adore trees, that is.

As for Northampton, despite the physical improvements, it seems a rather soulless place these days. With a dour South African, Kepler Wessels, in total charge of the cricket, plus three of his countrymen in the team, including his son, it's perhaps not surprising that the locals are losing interest. Despite glorious weather, there were only about 300 in the ground on Saturday.

It must have been very different in Colin Milburn's day, when they took the Burnopfield Basher to heart and named a bar after him. It's just below the players' changing rooms but sadly only the umpires go there for a drink after play these days.

Durham are in their second season of travelling by coach, so shortly after the day's work is done they all pile on to it and get back to their hotel.

I wonder how many of them now realise that the memory of Milburn was a major reason for Durham's acceptance into first-class cricket. People thought he was one of many, when in fact he wasn't.

Among the Durham lads recruited by Northants, of course, was Simon Brown and they have a long history of fielding a left-arm seamer, partly in the hope that he will create rough in his follow through for spinners to bowl into.

I can think of no other reason why South African Charl Pietersen should currently be in the team. On my morning constitutional from my digs four miles west of town I managed a few laps of a lovely village ground at Kislingbury, of which there are many in Northamptonshire, and I would expect to see three or four better bowlers than Pietersen at any of them every Saturday afternoon. No wonder so many former Wantage Road regulars are severely dischuffed.

DURHAM have two extra-curricular games this week. They are to tune up for their Twenty20 campaign with a match against players from the local leagues at Gateshead Fell tomorrow (5pm), while on Friday they will entertain the United Arab Emirates at Darlington in a 50-overs-a-side match starting at 11am.

The latter is partly to reciprocate the hospitality Durham enjoyed on their pre-season tour to Dubai and Sharjah, and also to help the UAE with their preparations for the ICC Trophy in Ireland.

Tomorrow night's match will provide final preparation for Durham's opening Twenty20 game at Derby on Wednesday.

They are planning to open with Nathan Astle and Nicky Peng, with Phil Mustard at three, and the signs are that Jon Lewis will make way for Gary Pratt. They might also include Graeme Bridge as spin has proved effective in the short form of the game and Durham will not be over-bowling Ashley Noffke, Mark Davies and Liam Plunkett.

The match at Derby starts at 5.30, Durham then visit Leicester for a 2.30 start next Sunday, while their four home games start at 6pm. They are against Nottinghamshire (June 28), Leicestershire (July 1), Yorkshire (July 4) and Lancashire (July 6). The ticket office will be open next Saturday, as well as weekdays, for bookings.

DERBYSHIRE boss David Houghton has complained about the Riverside pitch, on which his side were bowled out for 82 for the second successive season in Monday's totesport match. It was adjacent to the strip on which Derbyshire won the C & G Trophy tie six weeks earlier, and there were no complaints then.

Umpire Jeff Evans said: "It wasn't a good one-day pitch, but it wasn't poor," and the fact that the umpires didn't mark it poor means Houghton's complaint will go no further. His real problem is, he's in charge of a poor side.

TOTESPORT, who prefer a small t but can't have one at the start of a sentence, are giving Player of the Month awards in the one-day league this season. The Durham award for May went to Nicky Peng for his three successive 50s in the competition, but unfortunately he has to go back to his 88 in the wonderful win at Taunton 13 months ago for his last championship 50.

After a mid-season injury, he was unable to regain his place last year and is now coming under pressure for his place from Gary Pratt.

FOLLOWING my cheeky request for a bottle of bubbly to help us give our cabin a happy send-off at Riverside last Monday, Durham kindly obliged with two bottles of wine. The visiting Derbyshire press asked what it was all about and when I explained that the cabin was to take the high road the following day to act as Scotland's press box they said: "Oh no, we'll be back in it soon, then."