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Yet another false dawn on horizon?

10:12am Friday 30th July 2010

WITH Twenty20 banished to the corner of the memory, like some kind of inexplicable naughty dog blamed for ills which were in no small part self-inflicted, this was the week that had been triple-ringed in red on the calendar as the time in which Durham were going to turn their season round and kick on to September glory, charging down the final straight like Kelly Holmes fired from a trebuchet carrying news of victory and inexplicable mixed metaphors.

When the hurly burly's done - time for a rethink

11:12am Friday 23rd July 2010

IT SEEMED fitting that the Twenty20 campaign came to an end with three fixtures which accurately surmised the plight of Durham in this form of the game.

Tedium of Twenty20 ends this weekend - at last

12:37pm Friday 16th July 2010

MANY decades ago, it was possible for sportsmen to be an England international at both cricket and football, before clubs became protective of their players and the spirit of professionalism meant that the sports seemed forever separated.

The good, the bad and the ugly sides of Twenty20

12:29pm Friday 25th June 2010

THE elusive and oft-discussed 'spirit of cricket' and what relevance it has on the game in post-Stanford age was writ large during Durham's spirited and controversial defeat to Nottinghamshire.

From also-rans to real contenders

10:18am Friday 18th June 2010

THE scheduling of domestic Twenty20 is an absolute nightmare to the weekly columnist, as it flies by at the same relatively frenetic pace of the game itself.

From the sublime to the ridiculous

12:00pm Friday 28th May 2010

THERE are two things in the world you never want to let people see how you make them: laws and sausages.

Did Durham overreact with Smith?

12:39pm Friday 21st May 2010

FOR some, it seemed to mark the inevitable slide of cricket from virtuous heights down to the murky money-driven depths where less gentlemanly football louts inhabit.

Keep calm and carry on is Durham message

12:41pm Friday 14th May 2010

IT seems apt that as the country went to the polls and decided that actually, they're not quite sure what they want, so if you wouldn't mind awfully just deciding among yourselves and while you're at it could you pick something up for tea, Durham's conclusively showed no real sign of knowing where on earth their season was actually going.

University match welcome distraction

11:30am Friday 7th May 2010

WHEN Michael Di Venuto retired hurt on the same day that Dale Benkenstein detached a tendon in his leg, there was a moment where we were left to consider whether Geoff Cook may have considered coming out of retirement, such was the magnitude of the Durham injury crisis.

Title bid will falter without attack

1:26pm Friday 30th April 2010

IT TOOK six long days, but there came a point during the third day of the Championship game against Hampshire that - having seen Mitch Claydon injure himself leaving them a bowler short - Durham rubbed the sleep from their eyes and remembered at least some of the reasons that they'd managed to be champions for the last two seasons.

Cold start to Durham's title defence

3:12pm Friday 23rd April 2010

IF the crowd at the opening day of the season proper at the Riverside was there out of a mixture of child-like devotion and excitement that the season had begun rather than basking in the full glory of the English summer, it seemed as if the sunning of the Abu Dhabi trip had frazzled a good few minds in the Durham side as they seemed somewhat unaware that the season had actually started.

Life's a Cabaret on Durham's Abu Dhabi jolly

Rick Skye as the iconic cabaret star Liza Minelli

12:46pm Friday 9th April 2010

THE adage that "money makes the world go around" as Liza Minnelli famously strutted her way through in Cabaret, seemed most appropriate as the season kicked off across the other side of the world, as if somehow borrowed a rich gentleman who'd rented an entire sport to entertain his friends.

A tale of two spinners

12:00pm Friday 11th September 2009

IT WOULD perhaps be on the trite side to analyse the previous week of Durham's season as being the tale of two spinners, but in terms of the sensationalist headlines, it appeared to be just that.

Lessons to be learned from Pro40 rout

10:25am Friday 4th September 2009

WHILE Durham are hardly the only team to treat this season's Pro40 tournament as a convenient way of blooding younger members of their squad, the hiding handed out to them by Sussex had seemed like it was only just around the corner, although nobody had quite sensed the severity of the beating.

Do Durham care about Pro40?

10:38am Friday 28th August 2009

WHILE both the County Championship and Pro40 games both had their moments of interruption this week, there seemed to be a sizeable proportion of the crowd being less frustrated as usual, as it meant they could switch their focus to the Oval.

Hang on newsmen, don't get carried away

11:48am Friday 21st August 2009

THE life of a presenter on a 24 hour rolling sports news network must be a hellish existence; trapped forever in a never-ending stream of inescapable hyperbole, declaring any run-of-the-mill event as beyond comprehension of human experience or rumours as gospel truth passed down on tablets of stone from on high.









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