Nottinghamshire meet Durham MCCU at Trent Bridge this week, the sixth occasion the sides have met since 2002.

The home county go into the 3-day first class fixture after losing their opening championship match, against Middlesex, last week.

Durham MCCU are coached by the former Lancashire and England batsman Graeme Fowler and since they obtained first class status in 2001 the university has produced a large number of cricketers who have obtained professional county contracts, whilst wicketkeeper James Foster went on to play international cricket.

Former England captain’s Nasser Hussain and Andrew Strauss also played for the university cricket team, prior to their first class days.

A year ago Durham MCCU were dismissed for just 18 when playing at the Emirates ICG against Durham CCC, the lowest first class score since 1983.

Head to Head
Nottinghamshire have met the Durham University students on five previous occasions in first class cricket. The first two meetings were both at Trent Bridge and were convincingly won by the county side. Notts also won at the Racecourse Ground in 2006 but their last two visits to the north east, in 2007 and 2010, both ended in draws.

Last meeting
It has been three years since the two sides last met. In April 2010 Hashim Amla and Neil Edwards made their Nottinghamshire debuts at the Racecourse. South African Amla scored 86 in the visitors’ first innings total of 505-5 declared, which included 159 from Bilal Shafayat and 100 from Mark Wagh.

Durham replied with 291 with their captain Greg Smith, now with Leicestershire, making 114. Notts used the final day to enjoy some more batting practice with Paul Franks being the main beneficiary, opening the innings and scoring 114 as the match ended in a draw.

History
The five previous meetings have produced some outstanding individual performances and one extremely unusual occurrence.

Bilal Shafayat scored two separate centuries in the matches, compiling 105 in 2003 and 159 seven years later. Other Nottinghamshire centurions have been Kevin Pietersen, Jason Gallian, Samit Patel, Mark Wagh and Paul Franks.

Charlie Shreck made his first class debut in the 2003 fixture and it proved particularly kind to him in 2006. The tall Cornishman claimed figures of 5-6 as Durham MCCU were rolled over for just 48.

Nadeem Malik is the only other Notts bowler to take five wickets in an innings against the students, with 5-67 in 2002.

In the 2003 match Nottinghamshire’s Chris Read was undefeated on 94 when his side’s ninth wicket fell. AJ Harris, injured and not expecting to bat, was quickly told to get his pads on get ready to enable the ‘keeper to reach his ton.

By the time the hobbling Harris had made his way out of the pavilion the umpire’s patience had evaporated and Harris had been given out ‘Timed Out’ – only the fourth-ever (and most recent) incident of this dismissal in the history of the game.

Played for them both
Three Durham University students have featured in the matches against Notts, before going on to join the Trent Bridge staff.

Slow left-arm spinner Rob Ferley played for the students against Notts in both 2002 and 2003. His first class career began and ended with Kent, either side of a two-season stint with Notts in 2007/8.

Will Jefferson played in the 2002 fixture before going on to represent three counties at first class level. The opening batsman began at Essex before moving to Trent Bridge for three years from 2007 to 2009. Will then joined Leicestershire but injury forced him to give up the game last year.

Another Will - Will Smith - captained Durham to their 2009 county championship title after leaving Trent Bridge three years earlier. The top order batsman played for Durham MCCU against Notts in 2003 and was a member of the Outlaws side that contested the T20 Finals Day in 2006.

Milestones
Chris Read is approaching a couple of milestones. He has taken 695 catches for Notts and has completed 398 dismissals at Trent Bridge.

In first class cricket Michael Lumb has taken 99 catches and Andy Carter has 49 wickets to his name.

Team news
After the defeat to Middlesex Mick Newell, Notts’ director of cricket, hinted that many of the players involved in that match would also play against the students, although Ed Cowan and Alex Hales would probably be rested.

The quartet of Steven Mullaney, Paul Franks, Ben Phillips and Harry Gurney, who didn’t feature in the opening Division one match, will all be hoping to gain selection.

Durham MCCU are expected to stick with the bulk of the side that played against Durham in their only first class match so far this season. The squad is skippered by Chris Jones, who returns to Somerset at the end of the university term.

Jones has already played in two county championship matches against Notts; scoring 10 and 55 at Trent Bridge in 2011 and 28 at Taunton last August.