IT was like turning back the clock to Stephen Harmison's debut in the last match of the 1996 season as Durham endured one of their worst days in first-class cricket yesterday.

Harmison, aged 17, took none for 77 in nine overs as Leicestershire amassed 516 for six in 99.2 overs, but how Durham could have done with him at Grace Road yesterday.

There was steep bounce available with the new ball for anybody who could hit the pitch, but Durham's four seamers made a mockery of Jon Lewis's decision to put Leicestershire in.

The hosts had 30 on the board after six overs and continued to rattle along at the same rate all day, with former Durham player Brad Hodge making an unbeaten 200 out of a first day total of 403 for four. The action was cut short by 19 overs because of bad light.

Unless Durham's batsmen improve considerably on their first innings efforts against Derbyshire last week they could emerge from this match with even fewer points than they began it as they face the prospect of a deduction for a funereal over rate.

Allowances will probably be made for the number of times they had to retrieve the ball from beyond the boundary on a day when the action could best be described as carnage.

Hodge made 21 and 44 on his Durham debut two years ago then broke a thumb in the nets and returned for the last three championship games, finally totalling 284 runs at an average of 35.5 with a top score of 73.

Now 29 and unlikely to become a Test player, he joined Leicestershire at the start of last season and has since made ten first-class centuries for them and five for Victoria.

His best was 302 not out at Trent Bridge last season, and this was his third double century during the current campaign.

Durham's own Australian, Marcus North, spent most of the day in the dressing room after being struck in the mouth while fielding at slip following a deflection off Andrew Pratt.

The two men left out, Graeme Bridge and Gavin Hamilton, were both on the field in mid-afternoon, when Paul Collingwood also went off for a while after suffering a bang on his injured knee.

With 38 fours and a six, Hodge made 158 of his runs in boundaries. Like all Australians, he took guard again and slowed down after racing to his century off 93 balls, at which point he had scored 90 in boundaries.

The amount he scored from cuts and pulls emphasised how poorly Durham bowled, and although Andy Blignaut took two of the wickets he again failed to provide any kind of lead.

He was the most expensive bowler, conceding 93 runs in 12 overs, and at one point Hodge hit him for four successive fours, all off the back foot, and far from advising "take your sweater" Lewis must have been tempted to say "pack your bags."

After contributing to the flying start, Blignaut made a ball bounce steeply to have Darren Maddy caught behind for 11.

Graham Onions briefly found similar life when he came on second change, hinting that Lewis's decision to field first might not have backfired so badly had his bowlers put the ball in the right place.

He must have felt like Brian Lara after putting England in at Lord's last week, but now someone will have to bat like Lara if Durham are to save this match.

It was a sad reminder that while the personnel may change championship contests between these sides are invariably one-sided. The closest Durham have come to winning one was when they lost by 17 runs here in 1998.

Leicestershire have fallen a long way since then and went into this match with only Durham below them. While they took a full hand of five batting points from their match at Oakham School, they had garnered only three from their three previous games at Grace Road.

Mark Davies has carried the Durham attack all season and in his absence only Neil Killeen and Collingwood were able to command any respect.

But again Killeen didn't look like taking wickets and after being left out last week his return could be shortlived as Durham will surely have to spend the rest of the season looking to the future.

While there was some bounce available in the pitch, there was no sideways movement and no real pace, as shown by the way Hodge was able to pull several of his boundaries in front of mid-wicket.

In his first championship match since the end of April, Liam Plunkett bowled the first over and saw his first and fourth balls driven straight down the ground for four by Darren Robinson.

The former Essex opener was on 12 when he skied a pull off Blignaut to fine leg, where Plunkett ran 15 yards to get under the ball but dropped it.

There were no other chances other than when Robinson slapped a Plunkett long hop straight to Gordon Muchall at point to fall for 62.

Blignaut had left-hander John Sadler lbw for 21 to make it 179 for three, but Darren Stevens then contributed 84 to a stand of 223 with Hodge. It was eight short of the record fourth wicket partnership against Durham, set by Glamorgan's Mike Powell and Matthew Maynard at Riverside last year.

Since his double century at Oakham School against Derbyshire, Hodge had had four single figure scores in the championship. But he reached 1,000 runs for the season when a cover driven four off Killeen took him to 29 and also took the team total to 100 in the 20th over.

Plunkett bowled better in his second spell, twice beating Robinson in an over just before getting him out, and he also got past Hodge's outside edge on 46.

But the Australian pulled the next ball for his 11th four to complete his first 50 off 51 balls. The second came off 42, the third off 83 and the fourth off 55.

Lewis even turned to the medium pace of Gordon Muchall and Kyle Coetzer in the belief that they couldn't do any worse, and both were unlucky not to take a wicket.

Stevens reached his 78-ball 50 with a skied hook off an attempted bouncer by Muchall which dropped just short of deep mid-wicket.

Then with Stevens' score on 62 Andrew Pratt looked to have pulled off a slick leg-side stumping off Coetzer's second ball, but umpire Vanburn Holder gave it not out.

Onions had Stevens lbw playing across the line just after Hodge, on 199 at the time, not surprisingly turned down the initial offer to go off for bad light.

As the skies continued to darken, the umpires had little option but to go off two overs later, but even then the gloom was scarcely as dark as the pall hanging over Durham.