Change of fortunes
Durham v Nottinghamshire at Chester-le-Street. 9, 10, 11, 12 July 1999
Durham 392 (MA Gough 62, PD Collingwood 106, MP Speight 60) and 304-8 dec. (JJB Lewis 118, JE Morris 78) Nottinghamshire 353 (U Afzal 60, P Johnson 83, GF Archer 81) and 248 (RT Robinson 80, JER Gallian 69, P Johnson 70*)
Durham won by 95 runs
Durham 20 points, Nottinghamshire 8 points
In beautiful weather, Durham enjoyed a profitable opening day. Paul Collingwood ended a run of low scores with a century that he completed with a straight six and a four through the covers off Richard Stemp. The highlight of the innings was a partnership of 170 for the fifth wicket between Collingwood and Martin Speight.
Nottinghamshire made a solid reply but ultimately had to concede a deficit of 39 runs on the first innings. This was down to excellent bowling, on the third morning, by Melvyn Betts who took four wickets for 30 in an eight over spell.
Jon Lewis provided the foundation of the Durham second innings, taking 227 balls for his 118, whilst Morris was more aggressive. Durham’s run-scoring slowed towards the end of the day, and they meandered a little on the final morning raising fears that the opportunity of victory might be squandered.
Set a target of 344 in 83 overs the visitors started well. At 185 for two, with the experienced Jason Gallian and Paul Johnson at the crease they were in a strong position for a final victory push.
Neil Killeen had Gallian caught at slip and then an unlikely bowling hero emerged. With no regular spinner in the side, opening batter Michael Gough, was bowling off spin on a pitch that offered him some encouragement.
Two quick wickets for Gough soon became four and with Stephen Harmison steaming in to take the last three Nottinghamshire wickets a first home Championship win for Durham for 14 months was quickly sealed.
In the collapse, six of the last seven Nottinghamshire batters failed to score.
The win lifted Durham off the bottom of the table. Victories followed in the next two matches.
In his third and final season, David Boon was able to lead Durham to their best-ever finish of eighth which secured first division status for 2000.
The improvement owed much to the increased depth of the bowling attack. For the first time, three bowlers took 50 wickets in the season – Simon Brown, Neil Killeen and Stephen Harmison. Gough didn’t take another wicket all summer, but that hardly mattered.