The northeast has not had a great deal to cheer about of late, what with the crash-and-burn dramas surrounding Northern Rock and Newcastle United, but yesterday came news to lift spirits in the region. Durham’s cricketers, not so long ago an object of derision, won the county championship for the very first time, courtesy of their victory in Canterbury and Nottinghamshire’s defeat at Trent Bridge.

Durham has had a county cricket club since 1882 but for the first 110 years it was not deemed worthy of inclusion in the professional ranks. When that changed in 1992 the decision at first seemed dubious: for six years the club never left the bottom three in the table. In 1995, they conceded a world record 501 to Brian Lara and in 1996 they did not win a match.

Unlike Newcastle United and Northern Rock, Durham’s cricketers knew the way forward was to invest in the future, however long it took to see the rewards. Gradually, the team started providing quality players for the England team, chief among them Steve Harmison, their hero this season, and Paul Collingwood, who once raised eyebrows by claiming Durham were the new Surrey. Last year they won their first piece of silverware, the Friends Provident Trophy.

Now comes this stunning triumph, snatched from under the noses of Notts, the hot favourites going into the final round. After Durham had completed an innings victory inside 70 minutes of play — thereby condemning Kent to relegation — they had to wait more than four hours for confirmation of their title. By the time Charlie Shreck was last man out for Notts against Hampshire at 3.57pm, the Durham players were on the coach home. They will receive the championship trophy at their end-of-season dinner tomorrow.

This is a deserved victory and no flash in the pan. Durham are a team strong in experienced foreigners such as Dale Benkenstein, an outstanding leader of men, Michael di Venuto, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Callum Thorp, who finished with a career-best seven for 88 yesterday, and there are plenty of talented youngsters in the ranks.

Will Smith, to whom Benkenstein would like to pass the captaincy next year, Ben Harmison, Mark Stoneman and Phil Mustard are the latest products of years of hard developmental work by Geoff Cook and Jon Lewis among others.

“Geoff Cook has been the real heart and soul of the club and a lot of the success is due to the efforts he’s put in,” Benkenstein said. “We’re the end product of a lot of hard work.”

Harmison said: “This is my 12th season at this county and I’ve had more bad years than good. There are some young lads \ who don’t realise what sort of achievement this is. Geoff Cook deserves special mention, as does Alan Walker. Jon Lewis didn’t have great success as captain but he brought through a lot of players. They deserve heartwarming thanks.”

In an era when Twenty20 franchises shamelessly import talent through the chequebook, the nurturing of Durham — not only as a team but as a Test match venue — is one of the most commendable projects cricket has seen. It has been a communal effort and friends of the club around the world were celebrating last night.

The 1992 team was made up of elder statesmen from other counties such as Ian Botham, Wayne Larkins and David Graveney, the first captain. Subsequent captains included two Australians, David Boon and Mike Hussey, before Benkenstein brought to bear his experience of winning trophies with Kwa-Zulu Natal.

Time was when Steve Harmison dreamt only of playing football for the Toon but perhaps if Durham’s success continues more youngsters will be inspired to turn to cricket rather than football, especially if money continues to pour in. Next year’s champions are due to take £500,000 rather than the £100,000 Durham won yesterday and Harmison’s next engagement is a trip to Antigua, where he might win £500,000 for himself. The average salary at Durham is among the highest in the country.

Benkenstein said yesterday that the mindset of the team had been totally different going into this season. “From ball one we were saying to ourselves that we could win every one of the competitions and everyone believed it,” he said.

They made a good stab at it, too, finishing third in the Pro40 and reaching the semi-finals of the Twenty20 Cup and Friends Provident Trophy, but the knockout defeats hit morale and there were other hiccups along the way. On May 10, Durham were bottom of the championship. In early June, they lost by four runs to Hampshire — Steve Harmison and Mark Davies vainly adding 57 for the last wicket — and Hampshire again narrowly denied them in late August, chasing down 240 with two wickets to spare.

A controversial victory over Kent at the Riverside attracted the attention of the pitch inspectors, who gave the wicket the all-clear. A match against Nottinghamshire was washed out. When their penultimate fixture of the campaign against Sussex was spoilt by more rain, Durham’s chance appeared to have slipped away but at the last Harmison’s availability paid dividends.

While most other counties had to do without their England contracted players, Durham were permitted the services of a fast bowler enjoying the finest season of his career (though they were denied Collingwood, their other England contracted player). This was Harmison’s doing. When England asked him to come out of one-day retirement, he agreed on condition that after the internationals were over he could return to help his county.

“After the New Zealand tour I was not in a great position and it was only with Durham’s help that I got back into the England Test team, so I wanted to come back and play for them,” he said. “I was so determined to win the championship because potentially I may not play for them much next year. I couldn’t turn my back on them. The Ashes in 2005 takes some beating but after that there is no prouder moment in my career than this. This will be massive in the northeast. There’s a big cricket following there.”

In all cricket, Harmison took 109 wickets, including 60 at 22.4 apiece in the championship. Three of these came in four balls to finish off the match yesterday and another three came in a hat-trick against Sussex in June as Durham inflicted on the defending champions their first home defeat in four years.

But if Harmison was the head of the spear, there was a lot of steel behind him. Thorp raised his championship tally to 50 yesterday and Mark Davies claimed 39 wickets. Liam Plunkett and Graham Onions could not even make the XI in Canterbury. What they do not have and have never had is a top-class spinner. Paul Wiseman took 16 expensive wickets but in such a summer a demon spinner was not a necessity.

“We felt we had the team to win any game,” Benkenstein said. “Steve Harmison’s been available for us for most of the summer and that’s been the difference. He’s world class and it’s lucky for us that England didn’t realise that.”

This was the latest finish to an English season since the 19th century and, as happened last year, the title race went to the last day. It has been a good advert for four-day cricket and the county brand, under threat earlier in the summer from the franchise concept.

Benkenstein will now go off to the Indian Cricket League to try to rediscover his best batting form before returning next year. Smith will be hoping he wins a place in the England Lions squad tomorrow and contemplating whether to take up the captaincy. Harmison will nurse his left wrist, which he fractured trying to catch Geraint Jones on Friday. And the northeast will celebrate their champions.

Explore Cricket

• Counties

• Live Scores