By Neville Scott at Lord's
First day of four: Middx 175-6 v Durham
A REAL oddity this season has been that, of 26 championship wins, no fewer than 12 have gone to sides opting to field first, with 15 in all gained by teams batting second.
Strange indeed, saying much about current pitches but also, more hearteningly, something perhaps about the number of swing and pace bowlers around who can be trusted to do a job.
Whether Durham captain David Boon expected swing, it took time to materialise but there was lift from the start. Middlesex, inserted, fought to 120 for two, just after tea on a day cut to 61 overs.
Melvyn Betts, whose 25 championship scalps at 18.16 overnight make him leading wicket-taker, then found the implacable Justin Langer's outside edge after 41 battling overs, ended a mature Owais Shah innings when the teenager bottom-edged a pull on to his wicket and squared up Keith Brown with a beauty which left him.
Betts and Steve Harmison, the new generation in an attack from which James Boiling yesterday announced his retirement, had the pace to exploit bounce. When Harmison had David Nash fishing at a lifter, Middlesex had declined to 163 to six.
Day 2: Middlesex seize initiative
By Neville Scott at Lord's
Second day of four: Durham (172-2) trail Middx (335) by 163 runs
AN obscure anniversary, perhaps, but six years ago to the day Durham, in their first summer, beat Somerset to go fourth in the table, their best position until starting this match one place higher. In 1992, of course, they declined to last, and no finish since has bettered 16th.
They have the character to advance but beating good sides will mean absorbing the lessons offered by Middlesex during a crucial morning session.
Against bowling too eager and wayward on a still bouncy pitch, Middlesex 175 for six overnight, crashed 90 from the first 21 overs and grasped the advantage. By the penultimate ball before lunch, when Jamie Hewitt cut Steve Harmison to slip, the seventh wicket had added 143.
Hewitt's second ever fifty supported Paul Weekes's undefeated 93. Excellent in spells, Durham's young bowlers are still only learning to sustain pressure at the critical phase.
An important innings for Weekes, left stranded when Harmison and Melvyn Betts belatedly found a new-ball line to fire out the rest, it may well challenge for Richard Kettleborough's place, or even Mike Gatting's, when captain Mark Ramprakash returns.
But Durham's batting now has nous and steel. After errors from Michael Gough and Nick Speak had given Kim Bloomfield two scalps in three balls, David Boon joined Jon Lewis to claw back the balance with unbeaten 60s, against an attack lacking two front-line seamers.
Day 3: Betts fans flames of Durham hopes
By Neville Scott at Lord's
Third day of four: Middx (335 & 139-6) lead Durham (312) by 162 runs
A GAME which looked fated for that tired final-day formula - a lunchtime declaration followed by a two-session run chase - suddenly took flame when Melvyn Betts claimed three for 16 in his nine-over new ball spell and Steve Harmison added two more wickets straight after tea.
Middlesex, batting again in mid-afternoon, 23 on, lost Richard Kettleborough, beaten for pace, and Justin Langer, cutting to point, to Betts's first 13 balls. Langer was still sharing an unsmiling, long distance conversation with compatriot, David Boon - the presumed initiator - when 40 yards from the wicket.
Betts, as quick through the air with the odd ball as any bowler on the county circuit, also tore out Owais Shah's middle stump as he picked the wrong length to drive. In Betts's last over, Mike Gatting escaped at gully when 13 and Durham, who also dropped both first-innings top scorers, may yet curse their catching.
The gangling Harmison, rated by fielders and umpires faster, over-by-over, even that Betts, had David Nash superbly caught behind and proved too swift for Keith Brown before, eight overs from an early close in the gloom, Gatting (66) played on to Michael Foster.
Earlier, Middlesex's own young seamers showed exactly the kind of discipline their counterparts had lacked on day two as Durham, 172 for two overnight, mustered just 140 more. Tim Bloomfield returned a second five-wicket bag in only six extended bowls since debut but Paul Collingwood, 22, neat, composed and orthodox with an astute cricket brain, resisted impressively once again.
Day 4: Boon eyes prize scalp
By Neville Scott at Lord's
Final day of four: Middlesex v Durham
DAVID Boon and his Durham charges, maturing by the match it seems, faced a quite crucial phase in their further education at tea.
Indeed, since their accession to the big time, none of their previous 16 championship wins, almost entirely against similarly lowly or struggling opponents, would carry the weight of success at Lord's.
Middlesex are precisely the kind of formidably professional unit, schooled to do the right thing at the right time, which Durham and other counties aspire to be. If here they lack Mark Ramprakash, Angus Fraser and Richard Johnson then Durham are without Simon Brown - for the season, now - and John Morris. And it is, anyway, part of Middlesex's enviable club culture that apprentices arrive with proper values instilled.
Certainly, Durham had a prime opportunity, as they found themselves still alive, it appeared, by tea. Having let their opponents escape from 163 for six to 335 in the first innings, they had them at 139 for six overnight, only 162 runs on, with the chance of making amends.
But after Steve Harmison (29 championship wickets at 23.86) and Melvyn Betts (31 at 17.58 and now four five-wicket hauls in five games) had removed two more in the first eight overs, Phil Tufnell joined Paul Weekes to add a flurry of crucial runs.
Posting just two close catchers from the start, Boon nevertheless now saw his youthful attack prove so errant - Nicky Phillips went for 15 in his single over - that the last 47 of a 55-run stand needed merely 40 balls as Tufnell received the room to drive he so relishes these days and Weekes finished twice unbeaten in the match with 93 and 51.
In the end, Durham wanted 240 in 76 overs, an almost exact fourth-innings par, it seemed, for this pitch. But where Durham's strike bowlers have looked comfortably the more hostile in bursts, home pair Jamie Hewitt and Tim Bloomfield have proved cannier, more consistently attuned.
Within 21 balls, they removed Jon Lewis and Nick Speak, the latter for his second pair in three games. Boon found himself at the crease before lunch, taken at 12 for two. In a curious, out-of-touch, innings he failed to profit from a dropped catch at gully by Justin Langer, with whom on Friday, he had shared an odd exchange when Langer was himself caught at point.
Contrary to boundary impressions, Langer, staring and commenting halfway back to the pavilion, had taken offence at catcher Phillips' exuberant celebrations. Boon's role was to explain the fielder's relief after several errors this season.
When Boon, advancing to drive Tufnell, was stumped by David Nash, Michael Gough and Paul Collingwood took Durham to 92 for three at tea, needing 148 more at four per over.