Hotbed of the Game?

NorthCountryBoy

NorthCountryBoy

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Yorkshire is meant to be England’s hotbed of the game but does the NE not have a decent claim for it?

Over the last 15 years we’ve had Harmison, Wood, Onions, Borthwick, Collingwood, Mustard, Stoneman playing for England. That’s without having any real public school system to rely on like the Southern counties do, or bringing in Plunkett (Boro), Stokes (Cumbria) or Jennings (Saffa).

On England tours it’s a very crude measure admittedly but SAFC and NUFC are massively represented in the flag department (I’d say West Brom, Villa and Wolves are also up there). So I suspect we’re as supported as anyone even if the crowds at Durham games aren’t great sometimes.

What do we reckon?
 


I think we can hold our heads up and a good cricketing area.

Didn't Bob Murray do a survey once to identify where SAFC supporters were concentrated and the answer came back (unsurprisingly) that the hot bed were former pit villages of County Durham, which is just the area where cricket has been popular - see Colliery Welfare cricket clubs where the colliery has disappeared but the cricket lives on, even now.

However, we've got to admit we're a long way behind Yorkshire, don't they have as around four times as many cricket clubs However, if you reckon on cricket clubs compared to population we may well be about even-stevens.
 
Bri said:
I think we can hold our heads up and a good cricketing area.

Didn't Bob Murray do a survey once to identify where SAFC supporters were concentrated and the answer came back (unsurprisingly) that the hot bed were former pit villages of County Durham, which is just the area where cricket has been popular - see Colliery Welfare cricket clubs where the colliery has disappeared but the cricket lives on, even now.

However, we've got to admit we're a long way behind Yorkshire, don't they have as around four times as many cricket clubs However, if you reckon on cricket clubs compared to population we may well be about even-stevens.
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Population of Yorkshire is ten times County Durham.
 
NorthCountryBoy said:
Yorkshire is meant to be England’s hotbed of the game but does the NE not have a decent claim for it?

Over the last 15 years we’ve had Harmison, Wood, Onions, Borthwick, Collingwood, Mustard, Stoneman playing for England. That’s without having any real public school system to rely on like the Southern counties do, or bringing in Plunkett (Boro), Stokes (Cumbria) or Jennings (Saffa).

On England tours it’s a very crude measure admittedly but SAFC and NUFC are massively represented in the flag department (I’d say West Brom, Villa and Wolves are also up there). So I suspect we’re as supported as anyone even if the crowds at Durham games aren’t great sometimes.

What do we reckon?
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Always plenty of Derbyshire flags in attendance tbf.
 
smoker said:
Population of Yorkshire is ten times County Durham.
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That seems a bit of a lot. I think historic Yorks compared to current Co Durham would be close on 10 times. But add in Tyne and Wear S. of the tyne and I think not. And, Durhm Cri9cket is supposedly there to represent the whole of the North East.

I reckon Yorks has 4 times is close enough to argue about.

Looking at the names of Durham players quoted initially we've have probably punched above our weight and I wouldn't be surprised if there's a bi9t of a dought for a while.
 
Considering how young the county is in terms of county status Durham have contributed an enormous amount to English cricket in the last 30 years. I wish our home ground wasn’t in a such a white elephant location. It should have been built closer to Durham City in hindsight.
 
Bri said:
That seems a bit of a lot. I think historic Yorks compared to current Co Durham would be close on 10 times. But add in Tyne and Wear S. of the tyne and I think not. And, Durhm Cri9cket is supposedly there to represent the whole of the North East.

I reckon Yorks has 4 times is close enough to argue about.

Looking at the names of Durham players quoted initially we've have probably punched above our weight and I wouldn't be surprised if there's a bi9t of a dought for a while.
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I thought we were talking specifically about County Durham.

Yorkshire: 5.4 Million
County Durham: 520,000
County Durham plus Tyne and Wear: 1.6 million
 
A good few years ago there was an article, in the Wisden Cricket magazine, about Darren Lehman, when he played at Yorkshire.
In the article, in my opinion, was a staggering stat.
It claimed that there was more "junior cricket" in Yorkshire than there was in the whole of Australia.
 
badger55 said:
A good few years ago there was an article, in the Wisden Cricket magazine, about Darren Lehman, when he played at Yorkshire.
In the article, in my opinion, was a staggering stat.
It claimed that there was more "junior cricket" in Yorkshire than there was in the whole of Australia.
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Yea, Gillespie said something similar.
 
Genuinely believe we're the top dogs in that respect. Yorkshire also.

We've produced a lot of players who have gone on to represent England at senior level and a captain who won a world cup.

Always remember my brother out in Australia saying he felt like he was at home, the amount of north east England fans at the MCG for Australia vs England.
 
The development of players from local clubs in the region then through the academy and onto first class and international cricketers is outstanding.
The actual profile of Durham C.C. in the region is poor considering what they have achieved.
 
NorthCountryBoy said:
I’ve no idea how you get the data but I think we’d be up there in terms of players and fans per X of population.

Somerset area strikes me as keen too although I’ve never been.
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I think your being blinkered tbh there are loads of places with major cricket interest, one thing is for sure is we have a very good rate of progressing players compared to other counties. Like the post above states Durham isnt very well supported by the region.
 
Back in the early- to mid-'90s I played for a very successful works team in the Civil Service National competition. Our squad consisted of around 15 lads all picked from one small office in Durham - a mixture of Durham Senior League, Durham Coast League, Durham County League and North-East Durham League players.

Our opposition were, more often than not, picked from much wider catchment areas - National MOD, National Land Registry and so on.

We toured all over the country and when we turned up 'down South' I think they were expecting a bunch of Village hackers - what a shock they got when we took to the field in bespoke, matching sweaters and shirts (paid for by ourselves) and mullered them on the field with a combination of skill, professionalism and aggression that they simply weren't expecting and couldn't handle.

We had a hell of a run - winning the trophy three times and losing in the 1992 final when we were going for 3S.

Sadly, age and changing work commitments/practices meant we had to call it a day after a swansong season in 1995 but I don't think I've ever had a better time on a cricket pitch - especially when we shocked the hell out of the Southern boys with the standard that we played at.

The only team who really hammered us were a London Postal Region team that was like a West Indies 'B' squad but we gained sweet revenge a couple of years later when we butchered them at Bishop Auckland.
 
NorthCountryBoy said:
Yorkshire is meant to be England’s hotbed of the game but does the NE not have a decent claim for it?

Over the last 15 years we’ve had Harmison, Wood, Onions, Borthwick, Collingwood, Mustard, Stoneman playing for England. That’s without having any real public school system to rely on like the Southern counties do, or bringing in Plunkett (Boro), Stokes (Cumbria) or Jennings (Saffa).

On England tours it’s a very crude measure admittedly but SAFC and NUFC are massively represented in the flag department (I’d say West Brom, Villa and Wolves are also up there). So I suspect we’re as supported as anyone even if the crowds at Durham games aren’t great sometimes.

What do we reckon?
Click to expand...
Make a good point about the flags mind. Noticed that myself recently.
 
Jap Stammer said:
Back in the early- to mid-'90s I played for a very successful works team in the Civil Service National competition. Our squad consisted of around 15 lads all picked from one small office in Durham - a mixture of Durham Senior League, Durham Coast League, Durham County League and North-East Durham League players.

Our opposition were, more often than not, picked from much wider catchment areas - National MOD, National Land Registry and so on.

We toured all over the country and when we turned up 'down South' I think they were expecting a bunch of Village hackers - what a shock they got when we took to the field in bespoke, matching sweaters and shirts (paid for by ourselves) and mullered them on the field with a combination of skill, professionalism and aggression that they simply weren't expecting and couldn't handle.

We had a hell of a run - winning the trophy three times and losing in the 1992 final when we were going for 3S.

Sadly, age and changing work commitments/practices meant we had to call it a day after a swansong season in 1995 but I don't think I've ever had a better time on a cricket pitch - especially when we shocked the hell out of the Southern boys with the standard that we played at.

The only team who really hammered us were a London Postal Region team that was like a West Indies 'B' squad but we gained sweet revenge a couple of years later when we butchered them at Bishop Auckland.
Click to expand...

National Savings at milburngate house?
 

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