The season Durham were champs for a day

After completing their record seventh championship win of the season, they were indeed top for 24 hours until Sussex overhauled them by 4.5 points, ending their bid for an amazing treble.

Landing their first silverware by winning the Friends Provident Trophy final on an unforgettable day at Lord's had to be the highlight. But Riverside also witnessed many moments of high drama with a euphoric conclusion.

Top of that list was Gibson's ten-wicket haul against Hampshire, followed by the one-wicket FPT semi-final win against Essex and the easy victory against Glamorgan which clinched the second division title in the NatWest Pro40 League.

It all began on a Worcester ground which was more suitable for pedalo outings both before and after Durham's visit, as they launched their season with a 241-run victory.

Michael Di Venuto, previously a Tasmanian Devil in Durham's eyes, carried his bat in his first innings for the county - a feat he was to repeat in the third match at home to Kent.

Following his 155 out of 313, Dale Benkenstein scored a century in the second innings and Steve Harmison took eight wickets in the match.

In the next match at Headingley it was a member of the opposition who carried his bat. Yorkshire's Joe Sayers survived a slip chance on three to bat for nine hours and 13 minutes to make 149 out of 414, despite six wickets for Harmison. Matthew Hoggard blew Durham's top order away in the second innings and Yorkshire won by nine wickets.

Durham were quickly back on track, beating Kent by 157 runs. This was the first occasion in the Riverside ground's 12-year history on which both sides gained maximum batting points.

Di Venuto played with great fluency on his home debut, his century coming off 116 balls and his double hundred off 241. Kyle Coetzer, making his first championship appearance for three years, provided the only prolonged support as he contributed an attractive 74 to a stand of 181.

Coetzer had earned his chance by making 153 not out at a run-a-ball the previous week against Durham University, and it proved to be a huge turning point for a player in the final year of his contract.

Harmison and Liam Plunkett took 17 wickets between them in the Kent match, which built to a dramatic finish after the first rain of the season (on May 10) wiped out 21 overs on the final morning, prompting a declaration which set Kent a target of 327 in 72 overs.

With 21 overs left they had seven wickets standing but once Plunkett made the breakthrough five more wickets went down quickly. The last pair had 13 overs to survive and with 9.3 remaining a Harmison bouncer struck Robbie Joseph on the helmet, and with stitches required in an ear he had to retire.

The bad weather really began to kick in when Durham went to Edgbaston and after the loss of the first four sessions they reduced Warwickshire to 23 for four.

But Kumar Sangakkara made 48 of the first 56 runs and went to a brilliant 149 before becoming one of Graham Onions' eight victims. At the time his eight for 101 were the second best figures in Durham's first-class history, and they featured five instances of 'caught Mustard bowled Onions.'

He took all his wickets with a new ball, following his opening spell of three for 21 with five for 24 in 7.2 overs after coming back to bowl the 81st.

Further rain meant Durham didn't have the chance to bowl again and they had half a point deducted for their slow over rate after leaving out Gareth Breese, who had been wicketless in the first three games.

For the return match against Yorkshire they brought in Paul Wiseman, who retained his place in the championship side for the rest of the season. David Graveney, with 33 wickets at 37.36 in 1993, is the only Durham spinner to have taken more championship wickets than Wiseman's 31, which came at the superior average of 29.51.

With Harmison and Plunkett on Test duty, and Callum Thorp injured, Durham also brought in Mitch Claydon against his former county, but it proved to be his only appearance as he suffered a stress fracture of the back. A hernia problem also prevented Thorp from challenging for a first team return.

Victory lifted Durham into second place, 4.5 points behind Yorkshire, with Gibson settling the man of the match dispute when he had Jaques Rudolph caught at first slip 21 short of his second century of the match. It was Gibson's tenth wicket of the game and he followed what were then his championship-best figures of seven for 81 in the first innings by making 71.

Onions recorded his second five-wicket haul in successive games, clean bowling four of his victims in Yorkshire's second innings, only for his season to slip into decline.

He went wicketless in the next match against Lancashire, when Durham had Scott Styris making his debut and his 48 in the first innings remained his top score in ten knocks, in which he averaged 21.0.

After 39 overs were lost to bad light on the first two days, Lancashire were further frustrated by Durham holding out for 101 overs on the final day. The overnight declaration on 310 for seven left Durham to score 366, which was not unreasonable as 424 runs had been scored the previous day. But once Cork's swing had accounted for Di Venuto and Gordon Muchall, Durham opted for safety. There were nine balls left when the ninth wicket fell and when Wiseman blocked out the final over from Muttiah Muralitharan he had survived 92 balls for seven.

Three successive away games brought three defeats and seemed to have wrecked Durham's title challenge.

The first one at the Rose Bowl was the one they would look back upon with deepest regret as they were in command several times, only for Shane Warne to keep wresting back the initiative. He took 11 wickets in the match.

With Di Venuto making 124 out of 288 Durham led by 56 in the first innings then reduced Hampshire to 134 for six, at which point Warne began the counter-attack with a swift 33.

Then came the bizarre episode in which the floodlights were switched on and, despite protests from Benkenstein that fielders in the deep couldn't see the ball, Chris Tremlett got away with flinging his bat at everything.

Eventually the umpires called a halt, but Tremlett followed his unbeaten 62 by taking the last three Durham wickets in six balls when they still had a chance of victory.

Warne's generous declaration had set a target of 254 in 66 overs, but after an opening stand of 83 Durham were all out for 203.

Then came the Twenty20 and Durham emerged with their usual hangover to reach the crazy score of 151 for eight on the first day at the Oval.

Despite the valiant efforts of Harmison, who reduced Surrey to 50 for four in their second innings, still needing 103 to win, Rikki Clarke counter-attacked to give the hosts a six-wicket win.

With Di Venuto absent with a broken finger suffered in the Twenty20, Durham made 191 and 204 at the Oval, and were then dismissed for 209 and 206 at Horsham to lose to Sussex by an innings and 102 runs. Harmison broke down with a recurrence of a groin problem which had surfaced in the final Test against the West Indies.

With Harmison gone, this was the point at which Gibson really came to the fore, becoming the first man to take all ten wickets in a county championship innings since Richard Johnson for Middlesex at Derby in 1994.

Yet even that was almost upstaged by Durham University graduate Michael Brown becoming only the seventh batsman to carry his bat through both innings of a first-class game. He made an unbeaten 56 out of 115, and was on 126 when the match ended with Hampshire on 262 for nine, having been set 357 in 75 overs to win.

Last man David Griffiths survived for 5.3 overs on his championship debut, frustrating Durham after 146 overs had been lost to the weather.

Gibson's feat occurred on the third day. He had five for 31 from 12 overs at lunch and eight for 47 from 17 overs before a 90-minute break for rain, after which he took the last two in three balls to finish with ten for 47.

Gibson showed he could move the ball either way to the left-handers as Michael Carberry was the first victim, edging to first slip, then Michael Lumb decided at the last second to withdraw his bat and was lbw. Four batsmen offered regulation catches to Mustard, Chris Benham lost his off stump when shaping to drive and last man James Bruce could do no more than grope forward to a perfectly-pitched ball which left him to clip off stump.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul made his debut in the home match against Warwickshire, but it was a partnership of 182 in 61 overs between Coetzer and Ben Harmison, who both made maiden championship centuries, which helped Durham to lead by 235 with just over five sessions left.

They appeared to have been foiled by a second-wicket stand of 217 between Ian Westwood and Sangakkara. It ended in the first over on the final day when Westwood edged Wiseman to slip then Sangakkara departed for 119 when Gibson knocked out his off stump with his third delivery with the new ball, but Warwickshire still looked safe when they reached 342 for four.

They then slumped to 355 for nine, 120 ahead with 53 overs left, before James Anyon and Lee Daggett added 71. Needing 192 in 36 overs, Durham sent in Mustard, who equalled the county's fastest first-class 50 as he reached the mark in 33 balls, and when he fell for 76 the target was down to 35 in 13 overs. After missing three games with his broken finger Di Venuto's unbeaten 91 came off 102 balls.

Durham handed first-class debuts to Will Gidman and Luke Evans when they lost to Sri Lanka A by 154 runs. In what was largely a second X1, Durham handed the captaincy to Steve Harmison three weeks after a hernia operation, giving him ten days to prove his fitness for the FPT final.

On his first-class debut for Durham, Dewsbury-born wicketkeeper Lee Goddard, who had played in four championship games for Derbyshire the previous season, reached 50 off 32 balls. It beat by one ball the Durham record for the fastest first-class 50, equalled by Mustard the previous week.

The drawn match at home to Surrey was brought forward a day to a Monday start to allow Durham to travel to Lord's on the Friday for the FPT final.

Durham slipped from 181 for three to 232 all out on the first day after arriving back from a Pro40 League match at Canterbury at 2.30am that morning.

A day was lost to the weather, yet the pitch flattened sufficiently for only three wickets to go down on the final day, which Durham began on 325 for seven, leading by 374. The fact that Harmison had broken down on the second day with a back problem, ruling him out for the rest of the season, contributed to their decision to bat on and Surrey were set a target of 447 in 86 overs. Jon Batty ground out a 215-ball century and was unbeaten on 102 when a halt was called.

As recent Riverside pitches had flattened during matches, Benkenstein took the rare step, for him, of inserting the opposition when Worcestershire visited and everything went to plan in a five-wicket win. After 17 wickets fell on the first day - seven of them to Gibson - Durham led by only 19 runs. But Plunkett's unbeaten half-century stretched that to 86.

Worcestershire led by 215 runs with two wickets left going into the third day, when Batty slogged 45 of the 60 runs they added in 30 minutes. Needing 276, Durham's only concern came when Abdul Razzak suddenly removed Coetzer and Chanderpaul. At 125 for four Muchall helped Benkenstein put on 103 in 24 overs before the captain fell for 68 immediately after becoming the first Durham batsman to reach 1,000 championship runs in three successive seasons.

The trip to Blackpool was a potential title decider and brought huge disappointment as Durham lost by seven wickets on a sub-standard pitch.

After making 166, Durham trailed by only 17 in the first innings, with Gibson taking eight for 68. Benkenstein scored 77 out of 185 in the second innings and victory was still possible when Lancashire were 44 for three. But Stuart Law survived a difficult slip chance on 30 to make 82 not out.

A pitch panel was convened, but there was no points deduction and Durham had no qualms about leaving on a little extra grass and backing their seamers at home to Sussex.

The only downside was that, by bowling only six overs of spin, they had a point deducted for their slow over-rate as they won by nine wickets.

With the second of his seven wickets in the match, Gibson became the first bowler to take 70 championship wickets in a season for Durham. There was a three-wicket burst by Onions after lunch on the first day and a spell of 3-0 in five balls by Plunkett on the third morning ended Sussex's resistance. Rana Naved-ul-Hasan was wicketless when, with Durham on 233 for two, he attempted a sliding stop on the cover boundary and dislocated a shoulder. There were initially fears of spinal damage, causing a 45-minute delay while he was stretchered into an ambulance, and on the resumption Mark Stoneman was bowled for 101 and Durham collapsed.

Stoneman swept well and showed good defensive technique against Saqlain and Mushtaq in compiling his maiden century off 215 balls. He also dominated an opening stand of 81 when Durham needed only 107 to win.

Durham went into the final match at Canterbury 8.5 points behind Lancashire and 2.5 behind Sussex. A century by Benkenstein saw them reply to 212 with 321, then Wiseman and Plunkett both had spells of three wickets in 13 balls. Kent had little stomach for the fight and, needing only 52, Durham won by eight wickets.

Sussex completed a maximum points victory against Worcestershire the following day, as Lancashire failed by 24 runs to reach a target of 488 at the Oval.

Given all that had gone before, it was an anti-climax for Durham. But after surviving in division one by half a point last season they would have settled for second place. And they had been champions for a day.