UNLIKE his predecessor, Durham's new president will not be sidetracked by investigating the death of Princess Diana and Premier League bungs.

After an association with the club dating back to 1948, Tom Moffat has taken over from Lord Stevens and plans to see as much cricket as possible.

He also wants to create a permanent home for the Riverside band, of which he is chairman, beneath the stand next to the scoreboard.

"I played in the Silksworth band before cricket took over," he said. "Now they are based here and for the first time in 129 years they played at the Albert Hall last year as one of the top 20 bands in Britain.

"They have never had a permanent home, but our architect has drawn up plans for a band room which will double up as a community room, with new groundsman's facilities alongside."

It is planned to spend £15m at Riverside over the next five years on a hotel, a 500-seat banqueting suite, permanent telescopic floodlights and doubling the permanent seating capacity to 16,000.

"From starting my cricket in the back streets of a mining area I could not have aspired in my wildest dreams to this," said Tom, who still has the 1948 letter inviting him to make the first of his seven appearances for the county.

He was on the committee from the early 80s and soon became treasurer, in which role he was asked to put together the feasibility study which led to Durham's application for first-class status.

"One person on the committee said we were barking mad," he said. "But once Don Robson came on board that was the real catalyst because he was able to open doors.

"My heart has always been in Durham County Cricket Club and being president is a tremendous honour."

WHEN Melvyn Betts arrived at the crease on Thursday I observed that he used to be able to bat a bit. No sooner were the words out of my mouth than his stumps were splattered by a Graham Onions yorker.

He didn't do much better in the second innings, suggesting it's not just his bowling which has gone backwards since he left Durham, for whom he scored two half-centuries and secured the memorable win at Lord's in 1998 with 29 not out. They still needed 12 to win when last man Steve Harmison joined him with only two overs left, but Betts hit Phil Tufnell over mid-wicket for six and quickly finished the job.

BARNSLEY fan Martyn Moxon has had to suffer some ribbing from bowling coach Alan Walker following the 1-0 home defeat by Huddersfield in the League One play-off first leg on Thursday.

Walker dashed away from Riverside early to watch his home town's victory and Moxon said: "There was a Huddersfield shirt on my peg when I got in the next morning.

"Alan gave me a full and unbiased report and has given me a bit of stick about it, but he knows it's not over.

"Barnsley let them have 6,000 tickets but Huddersfield are very stingy and have only allowed us 3,000, so I can't get one for the second leg."

THERE is sad news of former Durham batsman Wayne Larkins, who has been charged with swindling more than £150,000 in a mortgage fraud, along with Deborah Lines, the partner he lived with in his days as a Sedgefield resident. Now living in Somerset, they are due to re-appear at Taunton magistrates court on Thursday.

STEVE Harmison's third daughter arrived four days ahead of schedule, and by selecting him for the match against Middlesex Durham were hoping he would get through it before attending the birth. In that case he would not have played in yesterday's C & G Trophy match at Old Trafford, which incidentally was the scene of his final Durham appearance last season.

That was the occasion when he had his best pal Freddie Flintoff lbw for 55 on the way to his best figures for Durham, six for 52.

He admitted that Flintoff, who was well forward, would have been disappointed with the decision, which was given by reserve list umpire Steve Garratt and earned him a lot of stick from the Lancashire press.

The same Mr Garratt made his first appearance at Riverside last week and was in no mood to give Durham anything, especially not the lbw which Graham Onions appealed for after greeting Jamie Dalrymple with a high full toss which struck him in the nether regions.

"I was trying for a yorker, but it was a bit high and he ducked into it," said Onions. "It was only after I appealed that I realised he was lying on the ground."