WHEN it comes to North-East batting records, there are few that come close to Neil Riddell’s statistics.

Born in 1947 in Staindrop, Riddell started his playing career at Lands before moving on to Raby Castle and then Barnard Castle.

At the age of 19, the left-handed batsman moved to Bishop Auckland where he would rack up a total of 7,583 runs over a ten-year spell, helping Bishops to two league titles.

Riddell’s performances at Kingsway earned him a call-up to the North Yorkshire and South Durham (NYSD) representative team and he proved to be an influential member of the league’s first-ever national title-winning team in 1975.

He scored a century in the semifinal before top scoring in the final win over Lincolnshire.

Darlington was Riddell’s next stop in 1977 where he continued his highscoring exploits by running up a total of 10,750 runs, which included a club record 13 centuries, to help the Quakers win four championships.

His form at local level caught the eye of Durham, who Riddell went on the represent as a minor counties player in the 1970s.

He captained the county to three championships and one Knock Out trophy in a spell of 175 matches – and he holds the record for most runs scored for Durham as a minor county with a total of 7,916 — fully 1,000 more than anyone else.

The accolades didn’t stop there.

Riddell made the most runs in a season seven times and he was named the Benson & Hedges Cup man-ofthe- match for his century against Northamptonshire.

He was also part of a full minor counties side that toured the West Indies in 1976 and was a member of the Durham team that defeated their County Championship rivals Yorkshire in the 1973 Gillette Cup.