WHAT had threatened to be a dreadful first day of championship action for Durham at Taunton was turned around with the help of Marcus Trescothick.

Other than a fighting 78 by skipper Jon Lewis - seven more than his top score last season - there was little until the final hour to suggest this season will be better than last.

After choosing to bat Durham were dismissed for 185 and Somerset were roaring along at 91 for no wicket when Trescothick's surrender triggered a collapse.

The England opener played and missed several times early on against Javagal Srinath, but in the Indian's third over he drove successive balls to the off-side rope to unleash a torrent of boundaries.

He had 11 fours in his 64-ball 50 but was a little too casual in trying to pull a long hop from Vince Wells and skied a catch to square leg.

Wells came back later and took two wickets with gentle full-length in-swingers in the penultimate over to leave Somerset on 126 for five.

Their other opener, Peter Bowler, also surrendered when he pulled Neil Killeen to Srinath at long leg.

Killeen had bowled poorly at Trescothick, but a switch of ends brought an improvement and when Srinath returned for a probing second spell Durham were suddenly in the ascendancy.

Srinath nipped one back to have Jamie Cox lbw for nought and had home skipper Mike Burns in a lot of trouble.

It looked a wrong decision to bring back Wells for the last three overs, but he had Burns lbw then bowled nightwatchman Simon Francis to leave the match surprisingly well balanced.

Stephen Harmison did not bowl badly, finding the shoulder of both openers' bats only for the ball to lob into space. But he was punished whenever he gave Trescothick any width outside off stump.

The only cloud on the horizon for Somerset members on a blissful day was a new swipe card system for getting in and out of the ground.

The queue for the exit at lunchtime was so long that those at the back could barely have got out before play resumed.

They would not have wanted to miss any of Richard Johnson's bowling as the 28-year-old seamer, who was in the England squad two years ago, kept up his superb start to the season.

Last week he went in at 36 for six at Bristol and plundered his maiden century, and yesterday he preyed remorselessly on Durham's weaknesses to take five of the first six wickets.

Three victims were caught by wicketkeeper Rob Turner, while Gary Pratt was lbw to a ball of full length and his brother, Andrew, was bowled shouldering arms.

It was high-class bowling from Johnson, combining metronomic accuracy with just enough movement to trouble batsmen who looked ill-prepared for such an early examination.

Durham have normally eased into the season by piling up a huge total against a bunch of students, but the fixture list has mysteriously denied them that privilege this time. They are required to play Durham University after their first two championship games, which will be of little use to anybody.

Michael Gough was beaten three times in Johnson's first over and four times in his third but had middled a number of pleasant strokes when he finally nicked one to the keeper.

Gary Pratt drove the second and fourth balls he faced to the off-side boundary before being defeated by a ball which swung into him.

Wells seemed determined to bring his experience to bear as he dug in for half an hour but then drove at a ball from Nixon McLean with little foot movement and edged to first slip.

The West Indian paceman greeted Nicky Peng with a couple of bouncers but the youngster looked comfortable enough and had three imperious fours in his 15 before Johnson returned and immediately found the edge.

Danny Law went the same way, although he did not appear to approve of the decision, and at 100 for five all the fears about Durham's batting without Martin Love and Paul Collingwood were being vindicated.

Andrew Pratt contributed 23 to a stand of 34 with his captain before his misjudgement allowed Johnson to complete his five-wicket haul. There was a huge contrast between the bowlers at this point as medium pacer Aaron Laraman, newly-signed from Middlesex, was posing no threat at all.

Apart from a couple of inside edges which narrowly missed his stumps, Lewis had not been in much trouble and reached his 50 off 83 balls by cover driving Laraman for his ninth four.

At 134 for six there was the bizarre sight of Laraman bowling to Lewis with sweepers patrolling the cover and square leg boundaries.

Quite why the latter was needed was a mystery as Lewis, now intent on holding things together, watched four successive balls go by well wide of off stump.

Nicky Phillips displayed no such patience as he wafted at another wide ball to edge the undeserving Laraman to first slip.

Killeen, obviously not relishing the idea of bowling at Taunton in the middle of a sunny afternoon, gave Lewis valuable support in an eighth wicket stand of 33, which ended when the captain was well caught low to his right by Turner.

Lewis's vigilance had seen him become a little too becalmed and he added only two fours after passing 50.

Former Hampshire seamer Simon Francis, preferred to Steffan Jones, took the last three wickets as Killeen chipped a slower ball to mid-off and Harmison sliced his third ball to point.

All out just before 4pm, Durham were left with 45 overs to bowl in the evening, and on a day which featured no spin it could have seemed a very long session indeed had Trescothick not self-destructed.

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