THERE is to be no happy ending for Durham.

Against the second worst team in the country, the only bright spots at Bristol yesterday, prior to a dramatic last six balls, were championship best scores of 73 for acting captain Brad Hodge and 27 for Ian Pattison.

The one point Durham gained for totalling 216 meant they have finished the season with 21 batting points, of which a pathetic four have come in the last eight games.

Yet again Jack Russell came snapping at their heels with six catches behind the stumps, while 25-year-old former Wiltshire seamer Roger Sillence joined the long list of players with career-best figures against Durham.

He took five for 63, starting Durham's decline from 68 for one when Michael Gough tried to pull a ball which wasn't short enough for the shot and got a bottom edge into his stumps.

Numbers two to nine in the Durham order all fell to edged catches, as did the two batsmen Gloucestershire lost before a stand of 103 between Craig Spearman and Matt Windows.

With seven balls left Windows gave Hodge his first championship wicket when he drove to long-on, where Pattison took a good running catch, then in the final over Mark Alleyne edged Stephen Harmison and Graeme Bridge knocked the ball up at third slip for Hodge to grab the catch at second.

Spearman, the talented former New Zealand Test player who qualifies through a Welsh grandparent, spoilt Pattison's day by treating his medium pace bowling with contempt on his way to 80 not out off 99 balls in the total of 144 for four.

That's the way Spearman plays. He also greeted Bridge's introduction with a casual pick-up for six as the left-arm spinner's first over yielded 15 runs.

Spearman thrashed an unbeaten 104 out of 180 to win the C & G Trophy tie against Durham here in May and with seven overs left yesterday Durham had to bring back Harmison in fading light to quieten him down.

At 6ft 3in, Sillence towers over most of the gnomes in the home side and, Spearman apart, those at the top of the order were troubled by Harmison's pace and bounce.

But his only wicket before the day's last ball came when Tim Hancock fended to Andrew Pratt in the over after 19-year-old James Pearson edged Mark Davies to Hodge at second slip.

Russell, whose dogged batting denied Durham victory at the Riverside this season, had never taken six catches in a championship innings before, although he has done it for England.

They were all pretty straightforward chances, starting with the one offered by Gary Pratt in only the fourth over off Mike Smith.

Pratt was shaping to drive through mid-on, which was not the wisest option so early in the day against a left-armer swinging the ball away from him.

Gough again looked in good form, but played a little too freely and had two escapes in his 33. Missed at second slip on 15, he must have felt his luck was in as he went down the pitch to left-arm spinner Ian Fisher on 26 and offered a head-high chance which Mark Alleyne dropped at mid-off.

Gordon Muchall's depressing run continued when he ambitiously tried to run a full-length ball from Fisher to third man and edged to Russell.

Then Ashley Thorpe was out for one when he flashed outside off stump and was well taken by Spearman at first slip.

Hodge, perhaps feeling the pressure of leading a struggling side, made an uncertain start. But he battled through and began to flourish once he had settled, reaching 33 out of 105 for four at lunch.

After totalling 13 runs in his first four innings, Pattison also made a shaky start. But with the help of a couple of edges to the vacant third man area, he suddenly found himself in double figures and began to look more assured.

Hodge turned Fisher behind square for two to reach 50 off 97 balls with four fours and added three more boundaries before he was undone by extra bounce from Sillence.

Playing forward, he was adjudged to have gloved it to Russell, although he did not appear to like the decision.

The fifth-wicket stand was worth 69, but after the loss of the senior partner Pattison started to get agitated as his runs dried up and he felt for a ball he could have left and edged to Spearman.

Whether through end-of-season frivolity or lack of faith in the tail, Andrew Pratt was in a hurry. He played some nice shots through the off side off Fisher, but also sliced one very close to cover and after making 25 off 26 balls he became another victim of the Sillence-Russell alliance.

Ian Hunter went the same way before Bridge, back in the team in place of Nicky Phillips, settled in with the composure of someone who could yet make a genuine all-rounder.

He was the unluckiest of Russell's victims as he was taken down the leg side for 17 and the innings ended when Harmison spooned a catch to cover.

Davies, preferred to Neil Killeen, was left on four not out.

Davies' early wicket took his tally to 33, two behind Killeen, and he could finish top of the Durham charts. But he dropped short too often yesterday.

* Gary Pratt has been voted the Durham Player of the Year in a poll of the club's members.

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