Glamorgan complete their campaign in the Specsavers County Championship by travelling to Chester-le-Street for the final first-class match of the summer as they meet Durham at the Emirates Riverside in a contest scheduled to get underway on Monday, September 23rd (start time 10.30am).
The Welsh county’s emphatic 291-run victory over Leicestershire at Sophia Gardens has lifted them back into fourth place in the table and, following results elsewhere, Sussex, Durham and Middlesex are now out of the promotion race leaving Northamptonshire, Gloucestershire and Glamorgan to compete for the two promotion spots behind Division Two champions Lancashire.
Northants, who are 21 points ahead of Glamorgan, meet the West Country side, who are 16 points above Glamorgan, at Bristol with Chris Cooke’s team needing another victory plus a full complement of 24 points at Durham.
If the third-placed teams are level on points, the tie breakers are (in order) - most wins, fewest losses and the team achieving the most points in contests between the pair. Under this scenario, if Glamorgan beat Durham and are level on points with Gloucestershire after Northamptonshire have defeated the West Country side, Glamorgan would be promoted as they would only have three losses compared with Gloucestershire’s four.
If Gloucestershire defeat Northamptonshire and Glamorgan are level on points with the East Midlands side, both teams would have five wins and three losses, with Glamorgan being promoted by virtue of securing 35 points compared with Northants’ 15 in the two Championship games between them during 2019.
With plenty at stake, Glamorgan travel to a ground where they have not recorded a Championship victory since 2004 – coincidentally the most recent summer when they secured promotion into Division One. Durham beat Glamorgan by nine wickets when the Welsh county played at the Riverside ground in 2017. Nick Selman anchored the Glamorgan first innings with an assured century but his efforts were trumped by a hundred from Graham Clark, before Chris Rushworth and Barry McCarthy dismantled Glamorgan’s second innings. Stephen Cook then ended a barren run by adding 158 inside 25 overs with Cameron Steel as Durham raced to an emphatic victory.
This had been the first time since May 2004 when Glamorgan had played a four-day match at Chester-le-Street, with the Welsh county having been victorious the previous time they met in a Championship game at the Riverside ground, winning by 201 runs with Michael Powell making 124, whilst David Harrison and Alex Wharf each claimed five-wicket hauls as Glamorgan eased to victory inside three days.
This was the third victory in successive seasons for the Glamorgan side on Durham soil having also won in September 2003 at the Chester-le-Street ground by 369 runs, and again in 2002 by ten wickets. Michael Kasprowicz was the star of both victories, with the Australian claiming 9/45 in the match in 2003 after Mark Wallace, Michael Powell and Matthew Maynard had each made hundreds whilst in 2012 he returned match figures of 11/105.