TV glory can't shake South North's premier passion

Sep 30 2008 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

SOUTH Northumberland last week tasted success on national television but captain John Graham sees winning the Cockspur Twenty20 Cup as perhaps the least important of his side’s achievements this year.

The all-rounder was delighted when his side beat Stanmore by 54 runs on the inaugural finals day of the competition at Cardiff at the weekend. But Graham sets more store by his side’s sixth straight Northern Rock ECB North East Premier League title and a championship success for the club’s second team.

Two years ago South North won the national 45-over competition at Lord’s and their victory in Wales confirms them as one of the country’s leading club sides. Durham won both the County Championship and the Second XI title this year, and Graham believes the successes are connected.

“It’s hard to win the North East Premier League but it’s hard to judge the standard of club cricket in the North East because you only see a small selection of teams,” he said. “But we’ve never come up against a team who we thought we weren’t better than player for player.

“We’ve won it six years running and it’s difficult because everyone wants to beat you because of that. We won the Cockspur 45-over competition a couple of years ago.

“ It’s nice when you play teams from other parts of the country and do well against them but the most important thing for us is to be the best team in our region. The second team have slightly different priorities because it’s also about providing opportunities for youngsters.”

There are strong links between Durham and South North, whose youngsters are coached by the county’s former wicketkeeper Martin Speight and ex-spinner Nicky Phillips. As the Riversiders have become the dominant force in English domestic cricket, the North East scene in general has benefited.

“The success Durham have had has filtered down,” he said. “Their fringe players play in our Premier League and that helps to raise the standards. The number of England players they have produced is phenomenal.”

Twenty-over cricket has long been a staple at club level but this year it has been rebranded with coloured clothing and all the associated razzmatazz of Twenty20.

“We’ve been playing it for years but you only need to look at how many players we’ve had available since Twenty20 cricket was introduced in our league this year as opposed to 20-over cricket in the past to see the effect it has had,” said Graham. “But we have to be careful because we don’t want overkill.”