No play before lunch, although it’s not as black as it was been over Bill’s mothers. That phrase has been rumoured to be a reference to Bill Proud, who hailed from Bishop Auckland and played 74 matches for Durham from 1947-55, many of them as captain. Unfortunately he had passed away before Lance Cairns’ arrival at the club, where the former New Zealand all-rounder enjoyed a few beers on Wednesday night with old team-mates like Bill Blenkiron.

Lance remains a good friend of the Durham scorer, Brian Hunt, who brought him up to the media centre yesterday. We reminisced about his performance just up the road at Ropery Lane in the 1980 Gillette Cup tie against Yorkshire. Lance struck some of the biggest blows ever seen at the Chester-le-Street ground off Phil Carrick before Chris Old spoilt the fun by having him lbw for 47. Durham made 213 for nine and Yorkshire won by four wickets with Geoff Boycott making 92 and John Hampshire 75 not out.

Now 63, Lance is over from New Zealand for the Test series. He played 34 times and in the second of his two seasons with Bishops he took the extraordinary total of 199 wickets in league and cup matches. He said: “A couple of my old Bishop team-mates have passed on so I thought I’d better drop in and see the survivors. It was a good night.”