Durham Diary

His 53 not out against Yorkshire last Sunday was his best in the one-day league and was sandwiched by first-class scores of 77 at Old Trafford and 78 at Riverside on Saturday.

Both of those ended with his bat thudding into the turf in frustration, knowing that he had missed glorious chances of a century.

Against Lancashire he went in at 159 for six following a mini collapse, and on Saturday Durham were again rocking at 146 for six.

Mustard was off the mark first ball with a straight-driven three, and having given Gareth Breese six overs start he was on 72 when Breese brought up the 100 stand with a pulled six off Ian Harvey.

They easily passed Durham's previous seventh wicket best against Yorkshire, 72 by Martin Speight and Marc Symington at Riverside in 2000, and were only one short of the overall record when Mustard swept to deep square leg in the first over of spin.

That record belongs to the unlikely combination of Danny Law and James Brinkley against Hampshire at Riverside in 2001.

Mustard's 78 came off 70 balls and the biggest sufferer was the South African, Deon Kruis, who repeatedly beat the bat without success in an impressive nine-over spell in the morning. But in six overs in the afternoon he went for 43, of which Mustard scored 35 with five fours and two sixes.

The first six came when he hooked a bouncer. He slightly miscued but the ball still flew high over the rope just to the leg side of the wicketkeeper.

Breese's part in the stand should not be under-estimated. He went into the match with an average of 12.7 in 15 championship innings at Riverside, but set out his stall to get past the point where the ball becomes softer and batting easier.

He made only four in his first 11 overs at the crease then cover drove Harvey for the first of his eight fours, to which he added two sixes in making 64.

DELAYING the AGM by three months until last Thursday had the unexpected advantage for Durham that no-one had anything to complain about. It was all over in less than an hour.

A loss of £51,000 was reported on the last financial year, compared with £14,000 the previous year, but this was not felt to be a cause for concern, especially as dwindling membership is showing signs of a revival thanks to success on the field.

The meeting had been postponed from its usual February date in the hope that the restructuring of the club would be complete. There are some legalities still to be finalised, but I understand new blood has been introduced to a revamped board, who will operate as Durham CCC Holdings Ltd.

WITH an increased capacity of 8,100, Durham have only around 1,400 tickets left for the first two days of the Test against Bangladesh starting on June 3.

But with the tourists being thrashed by an under-strength Sussex X1 last week, fewer than 1,500 tickets have sold for the third day and only 500 for the fourth.

Durham are praying for a decent showing from Bangladesh in the first Test at Lord's this week, and also believe they can sell more tickets on the back of the one-day international against Australia on June 23 being a sell-out.

SKIPPER Mike Hussey is not excactly overjoyed about having to fly back to Australia on Friday for a five-day training camp with the one-day squad.

"I'll also have a couple of days in Perth then it's back here for a practice game at Leicester followed by a Twenty20 international at Southampton on June 13," he said.

"Spending two days in the air for a training camp seems a bit of a waste of time, but I'm not going to rock the boat at this stage of my international career."

THE presence of umpire Barrie Leadbeater in the Yorkshire match reminds me of the time he stood in a Durham game with Alan Whitehead.

His name is pronounced beeter rather than better and he kept complaining that Durham's public address man was getting it wrong, so Whitehead suggested he should have a word.

On the final morning they walked out to hear: "Please welcome today's umpires Barrie Leadbeeeeter and Alan Whiteside."