May I be the first to congratulate Durham on their Friends Provident Trophy success over Hampshire. Ok, so I'm not going to be the first am I, but I'd like to congratulate them anyway because it was a fantastic triumph and a memorable achievement the whole region can - and should - be proud of.
After years of watching Newcastle and Sunderland blunder their way through yet another trophy-less season this was the first time I'd watched a North-East team win - barring promotions - anything.
It was a special moment, albeit one in which I couldn't use my usual phrase book of disappointments, embarrassments, let downs, humiliations, pain and devastation. No matter, I'm sure I'll be able to get them out again when Newcastle lose in the quarter-final of some cup competition or other!
There is a tendency among the southern-based media to patronise northern teams and I know Newcastle and Sunderland supporters, especially, get irritated by it.
Well Durham, as first class cricket's newest side and its former whipping boys, have suffered more than most at the hands of this prejudice through the years, but the smile was well and truly wiped off the faces of the critics this weekend.
From the moment Phil Mustard went on the attack with the bat in the first over, Durham were in control of the game. It wasn't just a victory on the biggest day of their lives, it was a mauling against a side the so-called experts predicted would win comfortably.
Durham had been called the underdogs. Well if you consider a Rottweiler taking on a Jack Russell an underdog then fair enough I suppose, but it certainly wasn't a label I'd have used.
To write Durham off before a ball had been bowled - by Shane Warne or otherwise - was foolish and so it proved. If this was a boxing match, it would have been stopped long before the rain postponed the inevitable for Hampshire on Saturday evening. In fact, if this had been a boxing match, Durham would have been the heavyweight and Hampshire the middleweight failing to punch above its weight.
The only negative was the weather. Having battered Hampshire on Saturday, Durham should have been able to celebrate victory that night with their supporters in the ground. Instead, because this is county cricket's showpiece event, a day is set aside for the rain and everyone had to come back for the 17 remaining overs on Sunday.
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