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County champions are sometimes garlanded with caveats in the wake of victory, but Durham deserved their win. Regardless of weather and the occasionally misleading influence of bonus points, Durham were the best side.
Quite simply, they won more games than anyone else and that’s what the game’s about, isn’t it? You don’t want champions who’ve picked up full bonus points and ‘earned’ lots of draws. You want the champions to prepare spicy pitches, safe in the knowledge that their bowling attack is better than their opponents’.
Durham’s bowling attack was the best. You can’t consistently leave out bowlers like Liam Plunkett and Graham Onions without having some firepower. Detractors might point to a general lack of spin, but we quite like that Durham have won the County Championship while practically ignoring that side of the game.
Over the last few years, the County Championship has been decided by spin more often than not. More specifically, it’s been decided by Mushtaq Ahmed. Now, it seems, there’s more than one way to win the title.
Durham have a canny little leggie, Scott Borthwick, but they’re not allowed to play him until he looks at least 16
Who needs spin when you’ve got a Viking?
I think Mushtaq Ahmed should decide most things.
The Viking – yeah Kent spotted that and tried to kneecap him. But their little ploy of trying to take out the bowling attack [they gave Harmy a broken wrist] didn’t work! [Have they been chatting to Lawrence?]
I’m sure Breese thought about spin as he batted to his century!
Win or lose Durham have been a fantastic team to watch this year. The general team pitch pile up at the end of their match yesterday – with Harmy and his broken wrist at the bottom of it – was especially entertaining!
Too right – the best team has won! Well done Durham!
Many congratulations to Durham, deserving champions.
Spare a thought for Kent, though. They held hopes of the title themselves (albeit an outside chance) until the penultimate day of their penultimate match. A surprise loss to Lancs later and they were staring down the barrell like rabbits startled in Durham’s headlights.
The finale to the county championship this year has been breathtaking.
And just who was pressing the F5 button all through both of Notts’ innings?
Now that the Large Hadron Collider has been switched off, there’s no other malign influence that I can think of that makes them so crap at the denoument of any competition.
It was nice to meet Jrod at Trent Bridge yesterday, even though the meeting up / social contact thing is frowned upon at this website.
The County Championship’s Division 1 is everything that football’s Premier League is not – unpredictable, exciting, the winners and losers not decided until the very end of the season, and the team with the healthiest bank account finishes last.
This is great for English cricket in general. Too often in England money makes all the difference in sports, specially in football.
Its brilliant to see a team that put in the hard yards win for once.
A fine achievement by them and specially for Harmy.
I hope he gives the Australians a hiding in 09!
Can I also add that after some fierce debate over in facebook land Mark Viking Davies has been offically declared HOT cricketer of the year
Excellent choice – HOT and rather charming! Just hope the Viking has a productive winter and stays injury free.
I was at Canterbury for the entire four days and despite the fact they nailed the coffin shut on my beloved team, was thrilled to see Durham celebrating on Saturday. It made the last day of the season very special – mercifully my Kentish tears were mostly shed on Friday! Top lads and exciting to watch, I will miss seeing them next year (albeit not the getting stuffed every time we play them in the CC!).
Was lucky enough to fraternise with Mr HOT too – a more than worthy recipient of this prized award!
I want to lick my finger and place it upon the Viking just to watch it sizzle.