DURHAM’S ACADEMY team won the North East Premier League T20 title at Tynemouth on Sunday.

After six weeks of intense competition involving all 22 clubs in the league, the youngsters beat Benwell Hill and South North Bulls to lift the Co-operative Funeralcare Trophy.

A semi-final victory over Benwell Hill was sealed through James Weighell and Reece Carr hitting 49 and 41 as Durham reached a target of 142 with six wickets in hand.

The Bulls included former Australian Test batsman Marcus North in the final, but he was out for 32 after James Thompson (76) and Adam Hickey (40) set them a daunting target of 172 to win.

After victory was sealed by 41 runs, Director of Cricket Geoff Cook said: “John Windows and Neil Killeen, who look after that team, have done wonderfully well.

“Neil has joined the coaching staff on a fulltime basis this year and his skills with the young bowlers are starting to pay dividends, and John has done a terrific job in the last five or six years.”

Stockton have expressed an interest in staging a Durham one-day match as part of their 200th anniversary celebrations in 2016.

When Durham take their Royal London Cup tie against Warwickshire on July 31 to South Northumberland it will be the first time they have used an outground since 2006.

That was when Kent visited Stockton for a championship game and a pitch panel was convened, despite the visitors scoring 411 in their second innings with South African Justin Kemp thrashing a rapid century.

The South North club in Gosforth are in their 150th year and last week hosted a Unicorns v Sri Lanka A 50- over match.

Stockton president Mark Fletcher said: “As Durham are helping South North with their celebrations we hope they might consider bringing a one-day game to our ground. We helped Durham a lot in their early days in first-class cricket.”