IT WAS a bizarre season for Durham. Since coming into first-class cricket in 1992, this was comfortably the worst season weather-wise, but that did not entirely explain their extremes of form.

After failing to win any of their first ten championship games they were 23 points adrift at the foot of the table. They then equalled the club record of four successive wins, were denied a fifth by the weather, and also won the final game.

Although they finished sixth, their lowest for six years, they had only one win fewer than the champions, Warwickshire.

At the start of the season it was widely predicted that Durham would challenge for the title, especially if their winter work in attempting to rehabilitate Steve Harmison and Liam Plunkett proved successful.

It didn't, but there were adequate compensations in the sensational form of Graham Onions, the surprising emergence of Chris Rushworth and the improved bowling of Ben Stokes.

Callum Thorp maintained his consistency and there were opportunities for Jamie Harrison and Mark Wood to show that they have a first-class future, so bowling was not the problem. As in most of their first 12 years at this level, it was the batting which lay at the root of their troubles and the rain-affected pitches were only partly to blame.

There was an obvious lack of discipline in early season, highlighted by reckless batting and the unprecedented deduction of four points for a deplorably slow over rate in the home defeat by Lancashire.

These traits were eliminated when Paul Collingwood took over the captaincy for the second half of the championship campaign. He brought his renowned professionalism to bear and defied dwindling form to become the only batsman to average over 30.

He was top run scorer with 697, but it was the first time no one had reached 700 for Durham. The previous lowest total to top the charts was 713 by Gary Pratt in 2002.

Phil Mustard completed just over two years as four-day captain. His record was won ten, lost nine, drew 13, which is satisfactory for someone who was suddenly thrust into a position neither he nor anyone else expected him to achieve.

In reality, the team ought to have done better, considering that in May last year they were good enough to take the maximum of 24 points from three successive innings wins.

Given their array of gifted stroke-players, they could get away with going for their shots on good pitches baked by glorious April weather.

When the rain arrived they lost their way - a trend which gathered pace during the sodden start to this season.

Mustard's cavalier style was clearly not the answer and trying to repair the damage from No 7 was foreign to his nature.

He averaged only 20, compared with 51 last year, but opening the batting in the CB 40 League, Mustard scored three scintillating centuries, the slowest of which, off 74 balls, was only two slower than Durham's previous fastest. He first beat the record with a 66-ball effort against Nottinghamshire, then lowered it to 55 against Glamorgan.

All those innings were at home, as were two of Mark Stoneman's three CB40 centuries, adding to the mystery of how Durham could plunder three totals of around 300 in the 40-over league at Chester-le-Street yet bat so abjectly in the championship. They were bowled out for fewer than 130 four times in the first innings of home four-day games.

Of the five home CB 40 games which were completed, Durham won them all so comfortably it underlined that they ought to have been very strong contenders. But they suffered five defeats away from home, with the eight-wicket defeat at Somerset, who won with 19.4 overs to spare, providing the season's nadir.

Durham had to travel straight from their agonising four-day defeat at Arundel for that Taunton game and it proved the turning point. They took heart from making Sussex fight all the way when all looked lost and in a similarly nail-biting finish at home to Middlesex in the next match they somehow squeezed home.

There was more heart-stopping drama at Trent Bridge, where they won by

16 runs with eight balls of the match remaining, thanks to Mark Wood taking five of the seven wickets to fall in the final session. It was a heroic effort and it was astonishing that he didn't appear again.

Durham finished the season with 18 batting points, compared with 47 last year. The highest scores by anyone batting at No 3 were 41 and 58 by Michael Richardson in the last two games.

Cruelly pressed into service in that slot for 11 innings, Gordon Muchall averaged 9.5 before being dropped when the pitches improved.

Collingwood fared even worse at three with 33 runs in four knocks, while Keaton Jennings also had four innings there and looked the part as he twice reached the low 30s before being promoted to open in the last two games.

In making 70 at Liverpool, and putting on 90 with the improving Stoneman, he confirmed he could be part of the long-term solution to Durham's problems at the top of the order, a dilemma which was highlighted by Michael Di Venuto's mid-season retirement.

Sadly, there were no fond farewells. After five and a half seasons of sterling service the popular Tasmanian abruptly called it a day, citing the difficulties of staying fit enough to maintain his standards. It is reasonable to assume that he was also a little disillusioned.

His exit roughly coincided with Ian Blackwell falling out of favour at a time when the team were at a low ebb. He found himself back in the position which had upset him at Somerset - out of the one-day team because of his lack of mobility - and after missing the seventh championship match following a back spasm he was seen only against Australia A, when he hit the game's top score of 62 and took a career-best seven for 52.

Even that didn't atone for his perceived indiscretions and he ended up at Warwickshire on loan, helping them to clinch the title and playing in the CB 40 semi-final and final.

Meanwhile, Durham gained no benefit from signing South African Johann Myburgh for the second half of the season. He was initially brought in as a last-minute replacement for Mitchell Johnson in the Twenty20 competition but after scoring 45 and 46 in two early games he was unable to have much impact as Durham faded out of contention.

Their T20 record was won four, lost four, one tie and one washout, which scarcely justified the outlay on Herschelle Gibbs, even though he broke the county's record for the highest individual score with 83 not out against Derbyshire.

Collingwood missed the T20 with a broken hand and after being appointed captain was still not fit for the resumption of four-day action at Worcester, where Dale Benkenstein took charge and Durham were again denied by rain.

In all, they lost 106.25 hours of championship action to the weather - more than any other division one county, although considerably less than Yorkshire. Ten days were totally washed out, including all four at the Oval, where they might reasonably have expected to win given that they beat Surrey by an innings at home.

That was followed by the enthralling match at Trent Bridge, where Onions arrived from Lord's at lunchtime on the second day and proceeded to take nine wickets while running out the No 10 batsman.

Onions missed two games through his role as England's perennial reserve and one through injury, yet finished with the outstanding tally of 64 wickets at 14.98. When Ottis Gibson took his club record tally of 80 wickets in 2007 his average was 20.75.

Rushworth made only championship appearance last year and was well down the pecking order at the start of this season.

Mitch Claydon played in the first four games, but after impressing in the first he deteriorated and made way for left-armer Jamie Harrison, who did well for three games but broke down with shin splints.

Even Ruel Brathwaite was given one game before Rushworth was called up after an outstanding CB 40 performance against Nottinghamshire, in which his figures at one point were five for 13. Each of his three five-wicket hauls bettered his previous first-class best and his 38 wickets at 16.39 left him third in the national averages behind Onions and Abdur Rehman, who played four games for Somerset.

After the disastrous start, avoiding relegation was all that mattered for Durham. The manner in which that was accomplished without too much dependence on senior pro's left plenty of hope for the future.