ENGLAND'S opening batsman Marcus Trescothick leant forward and watched the ball sail past him. It slapped, audibly, into the gloves of the Zimbabwean wicket-keeper.

Two people in the South Terrace clapped their hands, once each; second slip clapped twice, his noise echoing around the Riverside at Chester-le-Street.

But in that instant, Durham passed the Test.

Beneath a low, grey sky, the first ball in a Test match in the North-East was bowled at 10.45am yesterday.

Cricket club chairman Bill Midgley said that ever since 1989, when Durham applied to become a first-class county, they had been "dreaming the impossible". Now the impossible had been achieved; the dream had come true. Durham was the first new ground to be afforded Test status in England for 101 years.

"It is everything I ever hoped it would be," said Jonathan "Aggers" Agnew, the voice of cricket on BBC radio's Test Match Special.

"It is absolutely brilliant."

There was disappointment that there were about 2,000 unsold tickets yesterday, with a similar number today. But as the sun broke through within half an hour of the start, it turned in to a quintessential English day's cricket.

There was even an England batting collapse, as the home side slumped to 156-5 before rallying to close the day on a more respectable 298-5.

"It has been a great day," said Mr Midgley at stumps.

"The English Cricket Board (ECB) seems delighted with the arrangements and they are not unhappy with the crowd.

"It is the culmination of our ambitions."

Don Robson, the club's former chairman, who was the architect of Durham's transformation from minor county to Test venue, said: "It has been a wonderful day for Durham cricket.

"It was excellent to see everything that we have worked for over the years come together in such a spectacle.

"The Zimbabwe and England players were full of praise, and reports from the ECB have been good - the wicket played well."

The success of the day will strengthen Durham's case to be given more high-profile Tests, and it should also encourage the North-East which was disappointed on Wednesday when Newcastle and Gateshead's bid to become the capital of culture was rejected.

This weekend, Durham is indisputably the country's capital of sport, with England's cricketers playing in the north of the county and England's footballers arriving at Redworth, in the south, to prepare for Wednesday's match at the other Riverside, in Middlesbrough.