BY the end, it was getting difficult to see. The gloom that had enveloped Lord’s all day, and transformed English cricket’s supposed summer showpiece into an altogether more autumnal affair, was strangling the last vestiges of daylight from the sky.

But suddenly, at the opposite end of the ground to where the majority of the 2,000-or-so supporters from the North-East were housed, it was possible to detect a flash of silver piercing the mist.

The Royal London Cup was in the safekeeping of Durham’s one-day skipper, Mark Stoneman. English cricket’s youngest first-class county had just claimed their sixth major trophy in the space of eight seasons, making them the most successful team in the land.

“It’s been a long, old day, but it’s been worth it,” said Jim Harris, who had caught the 6am train out of Newcastle to ensure he was in place for the start of Durham’s second successful final appearance at Lord’s. “I’ve been watching Durham off and on for a decade now, and every time you think you’ve probably seen them hit their peak, they achieve something more.”

The North-East might be renowned as a passionate sporting region, but when it comes to actually winning things, we tend to leave the glory to someone else.

Not Durham though, whose remarkable rise since achieving first-class status in 1991 stands in marked contrast to the region’s more usual tale of glorious, and often inglorious, failure.

Even more pleasingly, the success has been built on a bedrock of local talent, with a succession of North-East players learning their trade in Durham’s academy, progressing to win major trophies with the first team and, in a growing number of cases, taking their skills onto the international stage with England.

Seven members of Saturday’s starting line-up were born within 12 miles of Durham’s home ground at Chester-le-Street, and another, man-of-the-match Ben Stokes, has been part of the club’s set-up for the best part of a decade.

Having pledged to provide an outlet for North-East talent to express itself when they initially applied for first-class status more than two decades ago, those charged with the task of running Durham have more than lived up to their promise.

“I’m a Newcastle season ticket holder so I could have been at St James’ Park shouting abuse at Alan Pardew,” said Mike Furness, who was at the game with his London-based brother. “But I thought I’d much rather see a group of North-East lads giving their all and actually winning something.

“It’s pretty incredible what Durham have done when you stand back and look at it, and nationally, I’m not really sure they get the recognition they deserve. If this was a football club winning all these trophies with local lads in the team, it would be on the front page of every paper.”

That is probably true, but while football’s dominance of the sporting landscape becomes more pronounced, it’s hard not to feel that cricket doesn’t always help itself.

Asking North-East fans to trek to London in the back half of September at a fortnight’s notice is hardly conducive to growing the game in the North, and probably accounted for the fact that the Durham contingent at Lord’s on Saturday was half that that made the journey when the club claimed the Friends Provident Trophy in 2007. That, and the fact that winning is not quite so novel now.

“We’ve seen it before, but I don’t think we’ll get tired of seeing it again,” said Joyce Milburn, a regular visitor to Durham Emirates ICG despite being in her 70s. “The cricket’s a lovely way to while away a few hours in the summer, and even though winning isn’t everything, it helps put a smile on your face.”