Well, I needed something to take my mind off of the football team…

There’s a guy turns up at Newcastle’s training ground and says “Hi! I’m your new manager. I’m Joe Kinnear.” Nicky Butt responds “I bloody well hope you are…”

Anyway, what’s been taking my mind off this since wednesday is Durham. On Wednesday, the last round of matches in the County Championship began. Durham were in third place, two points behind Somerset and a further eight points behind Nottinghamshire. At this point, I didn’t think Durham really had a chance of winning the title.

For this to happen, we’d first of all need to win, pick up at least two more bonus points than Somerset (or have them not win), and we’d also need Nottinghamshire not to win. Certainly, it was possible, but I didn’t really expect it.

After all, weren’t Durham the pundits tip for relegation this season?

Bob Willis’s verdict

One of my tips for relegation. They punched above their weight last season and they could struggle this year. Their survival could hinge on Steve Harmison.

The Guardian County Championship Preview, April 2008

So by the start of today, when Durham were in a position where they only needed to claim five more Kent wickets to seal their victory, and consign Kent to relegation (sorry, Loz!), Somerset were heading for defeat (and even if not, they’d picked up only four bonus points to our eight anyway), and Notts were facing an unlikely run-chase, needing to take 5 more wickets and then chase down something over 350 in one day…

Hampshire then proceeded to avoid losing any more wickets, declaring on 449-5 and setting Notts an extremely challenging target of 442, which they singularly failed to reach, leaving Durham with their first ever County Championship. Are you watching, Bob Willis?

So very well done, Durham. Obviously, much of that has been without Collingwood’s bat, but other counties have lost their players to England too. No, the thing that pleases me most about this is that after their Friends Provident trophy last year — their first ever trophy — it feels like the team have come more of age this season winning the trophy for playing the proper form of cricket.

Plus, it’s always nice to see the team I support win something. At St James’ Park, we’ve started to celebrate throw-ins…