Looking back on Durham’s glorious win in Middleton Cup
With the sport on the back burner we take a trip down memory lane to 2000 and a bit of history for Durham County Bowling Association.
It was often referred to by many within Durham County outdoor bowls as the ‘Holy Grail’, with all the great names from the past like Willie Watson, Danny Bell, Mal Hughes, Tommy Buller and the Lambert brothers, the county had never in its then 79-year history lifted the much sought after Middleton Cup national title.
Durham’s inability to win the national county championship was all the more inexplicable given the fact that they had dominated the equivalent event indoors, winning the Liberty Trophy six times in 16 years between 1983 and 1998.
Their first appearance in the final was in 1938 when they were beaten by Dorset and it would take another 34 years for the only other final appearance in 1972, when they went down 128-104 to Surrey.
In total, Durham have been beaten semi-finalists on four other occasions; 1976, 1980, 1982 and 1991. It looked like it would never happen, so how ironic it was that Durham became the first millennium winners.
In an attempt to break the hoodoo, the county appointed the much respected Hartlepool international Cliff Simpson as team manager.
During the season Simpson put together what on paper wasn’t the best Durham County team but the squad clicked and got on a roll.
Over the season they built up some momentum, which saw them qualify from the Northern Group into the last eight where they would face Derbyshire on a neutral green at Kingston-upon-Hull.
Even before a bowl was bowled Durham’s hopes were hanging by a thread. Traffic problems on the York ring road saw the players delayed and they were still 20 minutes away at the set start time.
At one point it looked like the county president and the officials were going to have to play but after a discussion between both sets of officials and the match umpires, it was agreed to delay the start with a lot of credit going to the opposition in agreeing to the delay.
In the end Durham went onto win by single figures and book a semi-final place at Worthing.
The semi-final line-up saw Durham face Devon and favourites Norfolk taking on Warwickshire and the final was expected to be a DevonNorfolk affair.
Durham were the only one of the four counties still playing in the traditional all-white while opponents Devon, who sported a Carlisle football strip of the 1970s, had several past and present England players in their line-up. Leading against Silksworth’s Keith Avery was one Robert Paxton the current World Indoor Singles Champion.
Durham put in a storming team performance, winning on four of the six rinks and even drew on the other two, which saw them home 121-105. The other semi-final saw Norfolk beat Warwickshire 125-106.
So to the final. Norfolk had placed their faith in experience, fielding five players who had made more than 100 Middleton Cup appearances, with several more well on the way to becoming centurions, compared to a Durham team that had several at Worthing for the first time in their careers.
The final was a classic with the lead changing hands that many times that the spectators lost count.
Despite winning on only two of the six rinks, the Durham fairy tale had a happy ending. White-le-head’s Chris Palmer’s rink of Clavering’s Brett Arkley, Silksworth’s Paul Baker and Barnes Park’s Stevie Johnston picked shots up for fun and produced a stunning 34-14 win over one of Norfolk’s big name players, former England star David Ward.
That win and Darlington’s Andrew Kirtland’s 27-20 win over Trevor Webb, left Norfolk looking for 27 shots from the other four rinks.
They found 16 of them when Bob Thacker beat former England international John Leeman 27-11 but the remaining three Durham rinks held on for a historic 123-117 win and a first Middleton Cup success.
Clavering’s Alan Theobald always dreamt of playing the final bowl to win the Middleton Cup and with the game already won, he got his wish, although no one saw where it ended up as the rest of the team had already started celebrating in the middle of the green.
There were plenty of Sunderland players in the team, Richie Mckie, Ray Robinson (both Roker Marine), Keith
Avery, Paul Baker, David Bolt the youngest member of the team (all Silksworth), Usworth’s Brian Poulter, Whitburn’s Stevie Northam and squad member Colin Jefferson (Silksworth) plus of course the County President at time, Sunderland’s Charlie McCain.
It was a weekend that the players, reserves, county officials and spectators will never forget – the year the Middleton Cup came to God’s Country.
With the indoor season curtailed, the final standings in the various leagues at Houghton were as follows (top-two only): Monday 10.30am – D Sim 36, D Wright 27; 2.30pm – S Forster 40, M
Tindale 34; 6.30pm – B Henderson 29 (+155), D Sim 29 (+213); Tuesday 10.30am – Dix 34, T Joicey 31; 2.30pm – S Forster 34 (+220), M Coulson 39 (+133); 6.30pm – P Brickle 33, F Johnson 32; Wednesday 10.30am – M Baker 33, G Brown 25; 4.30pm – M Nicholson 34 (+133), M Carr 34 (+130); 6.30pm – F Froud (31), D Sim (29); Thursday 10.30am – D Wright 38, G Bew 30; 2.30pm – M Baker 31, I Whorlton 30; 6.30pm – J McAdoo 37, M Carr (30); Friday 10.30am – R Jobling 34, M Baker 32; 2.30pm – B Robson 33, M Glover 32; 6.30pm – J McAdoo (32), F Johnson 30; Saturday 10am – B Henderson 38, R Jobling 34; Sunday 10am – D Sim 32, E Hutchinson 29.