The guests of the hotel were slightly confused, as were some of the staff. They were standing in a huddle in the entrance hall. In front of them was an abandoned wheelchair. It was an old looking thing and had “property of Lords’” scribbled on the side in pen. But why was it there?
I love going to Lords’. And in September 2014 Durham rolled into town and pulled off only their second County Championship win there. They beat Middlesex by 141 runs to continue their fight against relegation.
The hotel across the road from the ground is where the team normally stays and it’s handy for Regents Park and Little Venice, or Camden. The canal runs under the hotel and onto Camden Lock which is full of great bars and restaurants. It’s also handy to get about by bike and with the London bike hire scheme I enjoyed exploring the area. I also think that win against Middlesex came at the perfect time because a week later Durham would be back there for the cup final.
Sadly, Keaton Jennings will remember the Middlesex match for the fact he got a duck in both innings. He was going through a bad patch at the time. I tried to cheer him up at the bar one night by telling him how I got three ducks in a row for Whitburn. The third saw me run out at Boldon without facing a ball. I don’t think he was listening to be honest with you!
But he got back on his feet eventually and would have that stunning season with the bat in 2016. He is one of the nicest guys on the cricket circuit too and it was great to see him make his way into the England team and get a 100 on the first day of his test debut. The day he did it I went to cover the auction of a cricket bat which used to belong to WG Grace.
I was driving through snow while Keaton was scoring his hundred in the heat of India. His father missed his 100 because of a power cut at the holiday home he was staying in. By the time the TV came back on Keaton was walking off. But he was one of only four players to get a century on the first day of his test career. One of the others was WG Grace!
By the time Durham got back to London a week later they had also beaten Northants at home to secure their First Division status. It was an afternoon of crazy things. Chris Rushworth broke the club record, taking 9-52 and then a few minutes later 6-43. Some players fell to him twice within an hour as Northants followed-on and lost by an innings and 219 runs. It was Durham’s biggest win in a championship encounter.
So they were back at Lords’ for the Royal London final just a week after leaving there with a championship win. And I think that win and the fact they were now safe from relegation put them in a great frame of mind. Warwickshire didn’t have the benefit of having just played at the ground either.
My room in the hotel overlooked Regents Park and at about 5am I was woken by the mother of all thunderstorms. When I opened the curtains I could see lightning raining down on the skyscrapers of The City. The rain was hammering down. Would the weather halt things like it did during the 2007 final?
By the time the game began a few hours later it was muggy. It was misty. It was weird. The lights were on at Lords’ and it felt so strange to be seeing a cricket final in such conditions. The stands weren’t full either. Parts of the ground weren’t open. There had only been two weeks between the semi-final and final and it was London Fashion Week. Hotel rooms were hard to come by. And the football season was in full swing.
2014 had also been the year of Gordon and Gareth. Gordon Muchall and Gareth Breese had a joint benefit season and it was great to be part of it. From the launch in mid-winter at South Shields Cricket Club through the summer and a fantastic day out for a charity T20 at Durham School. Great memories.
But the final was also going to be Gareth’s last one-day game for Durham. He was retiring at the age of 38. There are a lot of nice guys in cricket but he must be up there at the top. A lovely bloke to be around. Refreshingly laid-back. And Gordon is a cracking lad too.
So, the build-up to the final was really about Gareth Breese. Could the Jamaican spinning all-rounder go out in a blaze of glory?
With so much moisture in the air Durham won the toss and put Warwickshire in. And what a game it turned out to be. The ultimate low-scoring epic. If you take the 2007 semi-final out of the equation. On a slow wicket The Bears were bowled out for 165 in 47 overs. It was difficult to get the ball away. Sticky.
Durham only needed 3.3 an over. Varun Chopra, the Warwickshire skipper, had shown runs could be scored. But you really had to earn each one. He dug in and made 64. Mark Stoneman, Durham’s young captain, took note and batted his way to a gritty 52. But that was when Jeetan Patel came into the game.
The Kiwi spinner used the conditions perfectly and took four wickets, all LBW, in 8.5 overs while only conceding 20 runs. Durham had been 12-2 after both Phil Mustard and Calum MacLeod went for ducks early in the innings.
Gordon Muchall was the fourth of Patel’s victims. It seemed anyone who went back into the crease against him was a gonner. Despite only making nine, Muchall looked for a while to be the one to play Patel. He kept going down the wicket to negate the spin. The moment he went back he was out.
At that point it was 130-7. The lights were on but barely able to burn through the mist as Gareth Breese walked out to join Ben Stokes in the middle. He’d earlier taken 3-30 with the ball.
At this point 36 runs were needed. The overs weren’t an issue. 17 remained. But it was tough out there. Really tough. I still have the commentary of the final on my computer. I make mention of Gareth Breese and it being his final game. How people have set him up to win it on such a stage. My comments on air at the time were thus: “Fairy tales don’t always happen in cricket.”
I had been commentating all day with Lizzy Ammon, who is now a cricket writer with The Times. My colleague from the BBC in Newcastle, Jeff Brown, was there. He had covered Durham from day one of their First Class existence in 1992 for The Journal. And Look North reporter Mark McAlindon was also there. He loves his cricket, and this was a chance for him to cover a big game. I think his son is with Durham’s Academy now.
Breese and Stokes chipped away at the total. In Patel’s last over Stokes tried a reverse sweep. He missed it. The ball clipped his boot and shot away for four. The ultimate heart in the mouth moment. He went on to make 38*.
And then. Gareth was on strike. And for a while the world seemed to stand still. Four runs were needed and there were 59 balls left. It was Gareth’s 154th one-day game for Durham. He’d also played 66 championship matches and 106 T20 games. (His career actually finished a few days later after his 67 championship game. Ironically against Warwickshire in Birmingham.)
Gareth was facing England’s Chris Woakes. And then the ball went for four. Gareth and Ben hugged in the middle and within seconds he was joined by his family. The ultimate moment. And Durham picked up their fifth piece of silverware in eight years.
“A number of people were convinced this was all set up for Gareth Breese to score the winning runs in his last match. Fairy tales don’t always happen in cricket, but it’s happened. It’s the Cinderella moment.” Martin Emmerson, BBC Radio Newcastle commentary, Lords’, September 20th, 2014.
And where does the wheelchair come into it? Gareth celebrated with a few rums. Quite a few that night and had to be wheeled back to the hotel. By the time I got there everybody was talking about. The wheelchair was abandoned in the reception area and he was in bed.
I went down for breakfast the next morning at about nine and there he was. Bright as a button. “I have had a good nine hours sleep. I’m fine.”
What a man.