CONTINUING developments at Riverside are likely to make Durham even more reluctant to up sticks, but two remarkable hours at Stockton on Saturday provided a wonderful advert for outground cricket.

Andy Caddick was threatening to continue Friday evening's mayhem when Teesside pride came to Durham's rescue. It was a genuine case of local heroes as two lads born within a hop, skip and jump of the ground dug in to make their best first-class scores.

Liam Plunkett made 74 not out and Mark Davies 62, sharing a stand of 124, which was only three short of Durham's ninth wicket record.

The record was set at Stockton in 1996, when Simon Brown and wicketkeeper David Ligertwood came together at 244 for eight against Surrey. Durham finally totalled 377, only for Darren Bicknell and Mark Butcher to put on 245 for Surrey's first wicket on the way to an eight-wicket win.

Plunkett's previous best was 54 against Nottinghamshire at Riverside last season, while Davies's was 33 against Derbyshire on Durham's last visit to Darlington in 2002.

The Teesside twosome played with such responsibility that it inevitably begs questions about the need to bring in outsiders to add experience to the team.

Although he is only just 20, as the senior batsman who had come in when Durham were really rocking, Plunkett was the more restrained. He showed excellent technique in making sure none of his edges carried to the slips, then opened up once Davies was out with a swept four and pulled six in one over from Ian Blackwell.

Davies, with a career average of 11.4, beat his partner to the half-century mark - 94 balls compared with 121 - and the first of his seven fours was a cracking square cut which earned a fierce glare from Caddick. Some fairly hostile stuff followed, but once Caddick had been repelled it was almost plain sailing.

SATURDAYS against Somerset are becoming memorable occasions for Durham. It was on Saturday, May 15, last year that Davies stood on four not out at the other end as Gareth Breese cracked the winning boundary in the extraordinary one-wicket win at Taunton. They had come together with 20 needed to reach the 450 target.

Durham didn't play again on a Saturday until the last match of the season. They also avoided the first two Saturdays of this season by winning in three days at Leicester and two at home to Worcestershire, but there should be much more Saturday cricket this year as there are also four Friday starts at Riverside, including the Bangladesh Test on June 3. Others are against Yorkshire (May 20), Lancashire (July 8) and Leicestershire (August 12).

DURHAM can be grateful they didn't have to face Andrew Caddick in 1996 or from 2000 to 2003, otherwise he would probably have 100 first-class wickets against them by now.

His six for 106 in the first innings at Stockton was his seventh five-wicket haul against Durham in the championship and took his total to 65.

We first saw him at Darlington in 1992 and the following year he took six for 73 at Hartlepool, while his first visit to Riverside in 1995 produced first innings figures of eight for 69. And just to prove he doesn't need helpful Durham tracks to cause havoc, there was a ten-wicket match haul at Taunton in 1998.

THE developments I mentioned at Riverside include a media centre, which will have seats for 72 newspapermen on the top deck, which will be open for the Bangladesh Test.

Radio men will be able to operate from the floor below in the one-day international against Australia on June 23, after which these county notes will be penned from the lap of luxury instead of the homely cabin we have always inhabited.

There are usually only five or six of us at county games, but the media centre is also to be used for educational purposes, with One NorthEast providing some of the funding.

Here at Stockton the club were kind enough to build us a viewing point next to the scoreboard. The downside is that we can't see the board, but the huge advantage is that we are above the kitchen, where the wonderful tea ladies keep us amply nourished.

I look forward to taking up my perch in the media centre, but I'd also be happy to come back here any time.