WHEN Durham won the Royal London One-Day Cup in 2014 to claim their most recent piece of silverware, the club was riding on the crest of a wave. Twelve months earlier, they had celebrated their third County Championship victory, and with their squad boasting Paul Collingwood, Ben Stokes, Keaton Jennings, Mark Stoneman and a youthful Scott Borthwick, a sustained spell of success looked inevitable.

It did not take long, however, for the harshest of realities to intervene. Durham’s financial collapse necessitated an ECB bail-out that came with draconian strings attached, and as the squad broke up, so the club found itself languishing in the Championship’s Second Division.

It has been a long, and at times painful, route back. But when Durham’s players take to the field at Trent Bridge this morning to contest the Royal London final against Glamorgan, another important staging post on the road to recovery will have been passed.

“That 2014 final feels a long time ago,” said Borthwick, who left Durham to join Surrey when the squad disintegrated, but whose return to Emirates Riverside last winter has been a major factor in this season’s success. “A lot has happened in that time, not just with the club but also with myself as well.

“My main memory from that day was singing the Blaydon Races in front of the Durham fans when we won it. It wasn’t a great day, was it? It was gloomy, it was wet, it was low-scoring, but the Durham fans travelled down and when we went over to show the fans the trophy, everybody started singing the Blaydon Races, which was amazing.

“At the time, I just think we were all so proud of playing for Durham and doing that. That’s what stands out the most, and it’s great to think we might be doing it again.”

This season’s renaissance has not come from nowhere, the club has been steadily rebuilding for the last three or four years, but having just missed out on a place in Division One of the revamped County Championship at the start of the summer, Durham have found another gear in white-ball cricket.

They hit the ground running in the Twenty20, only to falter in the latter stages of the group phase and narrowly fail to claim a place at finals day, and have been one of the two dominant sides throughout the Royal London Cup, culminating in Tuesday’s semi-final win over Surrey.

“At the start of the season, we sat down and discussed things, and winning a white-ball competition was a big part of our plans,” said Borthwick. “We wanted to play Division One cricket as well, and just missed out on that. We finished third in the competition, but we played some outstanding cricket at times.

“The belief now is definitely coming back that Durham should be in Division One. I think the boys are starting to realise that. In the last two or three years, they’ve been in Division Two, and almost playing Division Two cricket. This season, we’ve showed we deserve to be in Division One, playing proper cricket with the big boys, up against the big sides. There are really encouraging signs, and to get to a one-day final has been amazing. We’ve done really well this year.”

Not for the first time, the evergreen Chris Rushworth has been a star performer with the ball, but it is Durham’s batting that has undergone a radical transformation this season.

The opening partnership between Alex Lees and Graham Clark has been the bedrock of their success, with the pair regularly churning out century stands in the Royal London Trophy.

“They’ve been unbelievable,” said Borthwick. “The way the two of them have played, they’ve dovetailed lovely. Graham has been the aggressor, coming out and playing strong shots and really hitting the ball hard, and Alex has just been doing his thing. He’s had an unbelievable season across all formats.”

This season’s Royal London Trophy has been somewhat overshadowed by the Hundred, but having been starved of success for so long, Borthwick knows just what winning today’s final would mean to Durham.

“It’s felt like an important competition,” he said. “From the outside, it might look like the Hundred has taken the glory, but I think actually playing in the Royal London, it does feel important, and everyone has taken it seriously. We’re massively excited to be in the final.”