THE Durham members have voted Dale Benkenstein this season's Player of the Year, ahead of skipper Mike Hussey and local hero Paul Collingwood.

As all three topped 1,000 runs and Liam Plunkett had 51 wickets, for once there were several candidates. But in his first season with the club 31-year-old Benkenstein came out tops.

He was top scorer in the championship with 1,183 runs at an average of 62.3, and he topped both the batting and bowling averages in the totesport league. He had 411 runs at 51.37 and 11 wickets at 14.36.

After spending the first six years of his life in what was then Rhodesia, Benkenstein moved with his family to South Africa when their homeland became Zimbabwe.

He captained Natal for eight years and he played in 23 one-day internationals for South Africa before fulfilling an ambition to play in county cricket.

After helping Durham to achieve promotion in both forms of the game, Benkenstein said: "It has been a fantastic season and it has been a pleasure to be part of it.

"The highlight has been seeing players enjoying winning after several years of struggling, and improving their own games.

"Mike Hussey set the tone for the whole season and played a major role in getting us to where we are. The amazing start gave us momentum and we hung on even though we didn't finish as strongly as we would have liked."

Benkenstein also won the batting prize and the Players' Player of the Year award, sponsored by The Northern Echo.

He captained the side for six weeks in mid-season when Hussey and Collingwood were on one-day international duty and coach Martyn Moxon said: "Dale's contribution has been unbelievable. I can't speak too highly of him."

Mark Davies pipped Plunkett to win the bowling award for the second successive season, despite again missing the last few weeks through injury.

Although he had four fewer wickets with 47, Davies was close to the top of the national averages as he took his wickets at 15.55 apiece.

Plunkett's average was 30.84, but his consolation at last night's celebration dinner was the Young Player of the Year award. Collingwood won the fielding prize.

* Andrew Flintoff has sent out a chilling warning to the rest of the cricket world - the best is yet to come from England's Ashes heroes.

Flintoff is confident Michael Vaughan's young side have yet to reach their peak and believes the target must be to dominate the international arena just as Australia did at their best.

''We've beaten Australia, now we've got to be like Australia,'' said the Lancashire all-rounder.

''That should be our next objective - and as a group of players, we can do that."