LONG JOURNEY FOR GLAM

Glamorgan make the 313-mile journey to the Emirates Riverside Stadium in Chester-le-Street for their final game of the season with a “sniff” of hope that they can gain promotion to the first division of the Specsavers County Championship.

The Welsh side’s promotion hopes are out of their hands but they head to Durham for the four-day game, starting today, determined to collect as many bonus points and hope the result of Gloucestershire’s home match against Northamptonshire falls in their favour.

Northants need just four points to seal their place in the top flight next season, while Gloucestershire require nine, which leaves the door only slightly ajar for Glamorgan.

The forecast wet weather appears also set to conspire against head coach Matthew Maynard’s team.

But such possibilities have not deterred the county, who made the long journey north on Saturday to ensure maximum preparation time.

“Obviously you would say that Gloucestershire are favourites from where they are, a win ahead, but we are going up there (Durham) with a sniff,” said Maynard following his team’s 291-run win over Leicestershire last week.

“Our result now means Durham can’t get promotion, but they still want to finish as high as they can in the league and they will come hard at us. They have got a great bunch of bowlers.

“Thankfully the club is allowing us to go up a day early. We travel up on Saturday. That will allow us good recovery progress from a sevenhour bus journey, and then practise well on Sunday before the game on starts on Monday, so we are giving ourselves the best possible chance.”

If Glamorgan were to end on the same number of points as either Gloucestershire or Northamptonshire, then it would be sufficient for promotion due to fewer losses than Gloucestershire, and more head-to-head points than Northamptonshire in their two meetings.

With this in mind, captain Chris Cooke is not giving up.

“It’s great to go up to Durham with a sniff and know we can control what we can control, and make sure we get as many points as we can and we shall see what happens down in Bristol,” Cooke said. “We just have to do what we have been doing.

“We got maximum batting points this game (against Leicestershire) so there should be a bit of confidence that we can do the same again.”