DURHAM'S suffering at the hands of imports with EC passports continued to the bitter end yesterday, when for the third time this season their bowlers received a Bristol bombing from Craig Spearman.

After his 104 not out in the C & G Trophy and his 89 in the first innings in this match, the former New Zealand Test batsman hammered 114 not out to hurry Gloucestershire to a ten-wicket win in three days.

Such was Spearman's domination that only 41 runs were scored at the other end, with James Pearson making 18 before he retired hurt with the total on 95 and Tim Hancock remaining unbeaten on 23.

Gloucestershire did not have an official overseas player in this match as Ian Harvey is on the Australia A tour, but he is expected back next season and Jonty Rhodes has signed as the second overseas player. They are also said to be signing Mohammed Akram, the Pakistani paceman, who qualifies through an English wife.

It was the same old story for Durham as they improved on their inadequate first innings batting, only to subside from 198 for two to 312 all out.

With 50 overs of the day's play remaining, Gloucestershire needed 170 to win and by the time Spearman had reached 53 out of the first 64 runs they were well on their way.

He sped to his 58-ball half-century with three successive fours off Ian Hunter, which made a bit of a mockery of Durham's insistence that Hunter should be allowed to bowl. After being off the field on Thursday with a hamstring injury, he batted yesterday with a runner, but Durham felt they could get a final six-over burst of the season out of him.

Umpires George Sharp and Nigel Cowley, however, ruled he had to be on the field as long as he had been off it before bowling.

After checking the rules it was pointed out to them that this regulation does not carry over from one day to the next, throwing umpiring competence into question for the second successive game involving Durham.

Sharp and Cowley also got into a bit of a tangle when Hunter, batting with Gary Pratt as his runner, was given out before he had scored.

He played forward and missed and there was a delay before Jack Russell whipped off the bails and appealed. It wasn't clear whether Sharp thought Hunter or Pratt had wandered out of his ground, but his finger went up, only for Cowley to intervene on the grounds that he had already called over before the appeal.

Hunter went on to make 20 not out and put on 33 for the last wicket with Stephen Harmison, who played perfectly well for 15, only to spoil it by attempting a reverse sweep and giving Russell an historic catch.

It equalled Jack Board's record of 1,016 dismissals behind the stumps for Gloucestershire between 1891 and 1914.

Russell also took the first catch of the day when Michael Gough nicked a good away swinger from Jonathan Lewis after adding only eight to his overnight 70.

A stand of 51 followed between Brad Hodge and Gordon Muchall, with both profiting from some fairly ordinary bowling once Lewis and Mike Smith had been seen off.

But both batsmen were lulled into driving at Mark Alleyne's gentle swingers, Hodge edging to Russell for 39 and Muchall to Spearman at first slip for 29.

Fears of the usual collapse were stalled by Ashley Thorpe and Ian Pattison continuing to punish ordinary bowling, but after making 31 off 43 balls Thorpe swept at Ian Fisher and top edged to Alleyne at backward square leg.

It was a replica of Gary Pratt's dismissal the previous evening, and the former Yorkshire spinner was hugely flattered by his figures of four for 67 as Pattison drove him to extra cover and Harmison also surrendered.

Although the pitch had become increasingly batsman-friendly, Andrew Pratt was bowled by a ball from Smith which hit the base of the stump. Smith struck again when Graeme Bridge's sliced drive was brilliantly held left-handed by Fisher at gully.

It was not a happy return to the team for Bridge, who had to wait until Spearman had passed 50 before coming on to bowl.

After five overs for 34 runs, Hodge took over with his off-spin and was immediately driven through the covers. Spearman went to his 94-ball hundred by sweeping Hodge for his 18th four, most of which came on the leg side as whenever the seamers strayed on to leg stump they were effortlessly picked up in the arc between long-on and square leg.

It was Spearman's fifth championship hundred of the season and Durham never really threatened him, the only interruption to Gloucestershire's progress was when Harmison hit Pearson on the fingers, forcing him to retire.

Bridge was recalled and Spearman smashed his second ball to the mid-wicket boundary to complete the victory.

This was Durham's 11th defeat in 16 championship matches and all that remains is tomorrow's National League game at Taunton.

They could at least claim two individual prizes. Neil Killeen is the leading wicket-taker in the Norwich Union-sponsored event with 29, while Andrew Pratt is the top wicketkeeper with 23 victims.

Read more about Durham here.