Only one journalist followed the fortunes of Durham this summer and only one is qualified to pass authoritative verdict on another season of disappointment and defeats at Riverside. The Northern Echo's Tim Wellock shares his thoughts.

THE failure to score enough runs was a familiar theme for Durham this season, but for anyone looking for a tale of the unexpected then the tribulations of a succession of overseas bowlers provided an extraordinary saga.

There is no doubt it was also central to the team's slump back to the bottom of the county championship for the second time in three years following a rise of four places last season.

Pre-season excitement was based largely on expectations that Herschelle Gibbs and Shoaib Akhtar would be available from the start. Gibbs didn't appear at all, and when Shoaib arrived Durham quickly wished that he hadn't.

In the initial absence of their two world stars, they turned to West Indian Reon King and Australian Marcus North as both were returning to play as club professionals in the region and would provide convenient stop-gaps.

King looked about as rusty as the Titanic after 90 years on the Atlantic seabed, effectively costing Durham the chance to win their opening match at the Rose Bowl. Mark Davies and Liam Plunkett bowled themselves almost to a standstill in reducing Hampshire to 52 for seven as they chased 112 to win, but when Durham had to turn to King the game quickly slipped away.

How different things might have been had they won that match.

King had signed for two games and in his one home appearance he repeatedly ran through the crease. Then came news that Shoaib would be further delayed after being accused of feigning injury by the Pakistan Board, and with Plunkett, Gavin Hamilton and Graham Onions already injured Durham had to draft in bowling coach Alan Walker for the C & G Trophy tie at home to Sussex.

Walker tore a calf muscle attempting a diving stop in the field in the sixth over of the game and took no further part until he bravely went to the crease with a runner and thrashed 23 not out in a lost cause.

Durham then plucked a mystery man out of the hat in 27-year-old Pakistani Tahir Mughal, who was playing in the North Staffordshire League. He was no more than military medium and took two for 54 in a rain-ruined match against a weakened Essex side.

By this time North had agreed to stay for the full season as the South African Board would not allow Gibbs to come following an injury, and Shoaib arrived in time for the trip to Somerset.

He clearly wasn't fit and missed the next two games, for which Durham drafted in Pallav Kumar.

Shoaib played in the home thrashing by Yorkshire, went out on the town in Edinburgh and failed to trouble the Scots in a totesport defeat at the Grange, then declared himself ill prior to the rain-delayed start at Cardiff.

He had played in only two of the first nine championship games and shortly afterwards took one for 65 in the totesport defeat at Hove, after which he was summoned for Asia Cup duty. He had said he wouldn't play in it, but in the end the Durham management were glad to see the back of him.

Zimbabwean Andy Blignaut arrived at Newcastle Airport around 12 hours before Ricky Ponting flew in to Heathrow.

While Ponting was driven to Taunton to go straight into a Twenty20 match, Blignaut sat out Durham's game against Yorkshire and waited for the next championship match, at home to Derbyshire.

But he was as rusty as King, bowling 11 no-balls in the visitors' first innings, and looked as though he couldn't care less. He also played in the thrashing at Grace Road, where he took two for 109, then developed a chest infection and departed to take up a three-year contract with Tasmania.

Just when it seemed things couldn't get any worse, they did. Great excitement surrounded the arrival of Australia's top up-and-coming paceman, Shaun Tait, for the last five weeks of the season. In two games he took none for 176 in 18 overs, which included 26 no-balls.

Tait was a genuine case for sympathy. He desperately wanted to prove himself and was devastated by his inability to find his run-up. He was last seen at Scarborough, cutting a forlorn figure as the team celebrated a victory in which he had played no part.

For an outlay which will not have been less than £100,000 Durham's reward from five overseas bowlers was 19 championship wickets at an average of 43.9.

Shoaib took 13 wickets at 16.53 in the totesport League, but his poor efforts in the away defeats by Scotland and Sussex undermined Durham's promotion bid, and they did well to sustain it to the final match.

They beat Nottinghamshire home and away, but it was the Trent Bridge team who eventually claimed third place and the mid-table logjam saw Durham finish sixth, one place higher than last season.

It was undoubtedly the wettest of Durham's 13 seasons in first-class cricket. The six championship matches they drew were all ruined by the weather, and of the remaining ten they lost eight.

The highlight was the extraordinary win at Taunton, when they were 95 for five when Gareth Breese went in and made an unbeaten 165 out of the winning total of 453 for nine.

The following day they went to Worcester and made their record score in the one-day league of 319 for three, with centuries from Paul Collingwood and Marcus North.

Then they went back to the slow pitch at Riverside and the run spree ended in a heavy championship defeat by Glamorgan.

It was the first sign that Durham were beginning to dislike playing at home and they performed well in the next match at Trent Bridge, where the strong Nottinghamshire side were 221 for seven in their second innings chasing 294 to win an enthralling, see-sawing contest. Chris Read's unbeaten 108 saw them home.

After that it was back to Riverside for a 320-run thrashing by Yorkshire and it was pretty much downhill all the way until the return fixture at Scarborough.

The only respite came from totesport wins at Taunton and Cleethorpes, and at home to the top two Middlesex and Worcestershire, then Sussex, when Plunkett needed to score 14 off the last five balls and hit the next three for four, six, four.

The tame defeat in the final totesport match at Scarborough tarnished a wonderful few days at the festival, when a good pitch and glorious weather inspired Durham to a three-day championship win founded on Gordon Muchall's unbeaten 142.

It helped him top the batting averages with 970 runs at 35.93, but no-one else could be satisfied other than Mark Davies for his outstanding form in taking 50 championship prior to a side strain ruling him out for the last seven weeks.

Plunkett and Breese finished the season strongly and Phil Mustard provided further notice of his talent, otherwise individual success was all too fleeting, such as North's double hundred at Cardiff and the sheer determination of Jon Lewis's century at Colchester.

After last season's progress, the disappointment of returning to the bottom meant it was inevitable there would be changes. But it was too soon for new chairman Clive Leach, who took over in July, to tinker with the management, so a change of captain was the obvious route.

Lewis is nothing if not a fighter, as he showed right up to the final match, when it was announced on the first day that Australian Mike Hussey will be the captain next season.

Lewis was disappointed. He saw the job as a great honour and wanted to carry on, but he can be justifiably proud that his four-year reign is longer than any of his predecessors survived.

His benefit season has been something of a disaster, for which he deserves sympathy as his efforts to find his form and lift his team meant he could put very little into it.

Lewis has a year left on hi s contract and has pledged his full support for Hussey, who looks an excellent signing.

After the problems with Shoaib and Gibbs, Durham have rightly shunned the superstar route and gone for two experienced Australians who have flirted with the Test squad but are unlikely to be required for the Ashes series.

After the saga of this season's overseas bowlers, they have every right to expect that Queenslander Ashley Noffke will arrive fully fit and raring to go and remain so throughout a season in which he will deliver not a single no-ball.

Read more about Durham County Cricket Club here.