DURHAM scorer Brian Hunt makes his Test debut on Thursday after starting in an Evenwood second team match at Tantobie.

"It's when I look back on that it really hits home what Durham have achieved and how lucky I am to have been a part of it," he said.

"I get to sit at the same table as Test players and umpires for lunch and they treat me on equal terms."

England always use the host county's scorer, so Brian has the job for Riverside's Test baptism against Zimbabwe.

"It's a marvellous thing for the area," he added. "Once they get over the hurdle of the first Test it should become a regular event."

It will be a far cry from his Durham debut 28 years ago in a three-day match against Scotland at Stenhousemuir.

By that time he was scoring for his local club, Bishop Auckland, whose county star Neil Riddell recommended him.

A joiner by trade, he shared the Durham job with schoolteacher Allan Reed until taking over completely with the advent of first-class cricket in 1992.

"There's a fee involved for the Test, but the actual job will be no different from scoring a county match," he said.

"There are fewer overs in a day in a Test match and play is a bit slower. There are massive fines for slow over-rates, so we have to keep on top of that and get all the timings down.

"In county games we have a walkie-talkie link with the umpires this season for the first time, which has been very beneficial. They can tell us straightaway, for example, whether someone is out lbw or caught off bat and pad.

"In the Test I will have to liaise with the match umpire, who I think is Clive Lloyd. I also have to make sure the people operating the scoreboard have everything right, but that's no different from a county game."

When Brian started in the first-class game he found most of his colleagues were retired gentlemen and he was the youngest on the circuit.

Now 56, he took much more readily than most to the switch from filling in an old-fashioned scorebook to recording everything on a computer.

Despite his relative youth, he claims to have been voted the ugliest scorer for the third year running, although this is probably his reward for setting the competition running in the first place.

"It's a fantastic life. We have the best seat in the house and it's a dream come true for me. As a minor county we went to places like Northwich and Shropshire, and never in my wildest dreams did I think I would score on a Test ground in my own county.

"I've done the one-day internationals at Riverside and usually travelled overnight after them to catch up with Durham. I've never missed a full Durham first-class game before.

"My thoughts will be with them in Hampshire, but at least I can keep bringing their score up on my computer."

Brian has written three books, starting with one to celebrate Bishop Auckland's 125th anniversary. He followed that with 100 Years of Durham County Cricket Club in 1982, then produced the 500-page Northern Goalfields to celebrate the centenary of the Northern League.

"I like football and used to be a season ticket holder at Darlington," he said. "But I don't go to watch games any more - I don't have the same passion for it as cricket."

Two of his favourite stories about cricket both end with well-known characters running off the field and driving away in anger.

The first involved Bishop Auckland's Gus Williamson, who had played for Northamptonshire and therefore had nothing to fear from a Reyrolles team who turned up for an evening cup tie a man short.

The bus driver made up the numbers and went in to bat wearing glasses, black trousers and white shirt with 12 needed off two balls. He smashed them both - off Williamson - for six.

Then there was a Durham match at Bourne against Lincolnshire, who were all out for 40, followed on and had an opener called Hedley Stroud who batted all the second day for 30.

The match was in the last over when the No 11 batsman, another ex-Northants man, Jim Griffiths, called Stroud for a single to cover and ran him out by yards.

"Griffiths ran straight off and never played for Lincs again," said Brian, still hugely tickled at the memory of it.

His sense of humour and down-to-earth attitude have always made him popular in the Durham dressing room. He doesn't expect to have the same close contact with the England players, but he will have another stack of memories to add to his collection.