WE know Durham are stout men. But now it can be revealed that their surge to the county title last season was fuelled by Guinness.

I discovered this at Hove because it’s one of the few grounds where there’s a reasonably traditional pub just outside the gates. That means it’s also one of the few places where players and press tend to congregate after play.

The Sussex Cricketer serves the very fine Harvey’s Sussex Bitter at £2.35 a pint, compared with £3 in the Bull at Ditchling, yet all the Durham players, coaches and even the physio were on draught Guinness.

Apparently the main instigator was Dale Benkenstein, for whom the strains of years of captaincy, both in Natal and at Durham, began to take their toll.

“I was feeling run down and went to see my doctor in South Africa,” he said. “He told me I had an iron deficiency and suggested I should drink Guinness.

“Michael Di Venuto and Ottis Gibson were already converts, but now most of the lads are on it. I’m planning a visit to the Guinness Brewery in Dublin at the end of the season and some of the others are starting to sign up to it.”