NORTHANTS are not the most hospitable of counties, although it would be unfair to suggest they resent Durham's first-class status.

They had a long history of pillaging the North-East for players like Colin Milburn, Peter Willey, George Sharp, Geoff Cook and Simon Brown, so it's little wonder they are struggling now that this supply line has been cut.

Durham's legendary hospitality to the Press has even extended to bacon butties before play this season, but at Northampton I had to pay £1 for the privilege of stirring a tea bag around in a mug of hot water and adding a splash of milk.

Hospitality on the pitch was immediately thrown into question when the covers were rolled back to reveal that the groundsman had brought forward his end-of-season scarifying by three months.

OK, I exaggerate, but the roughed-up areas were clearly designed to help Northants' two off-spinners and prompted Durham coach Martyn Moxon to gather film evidence.

Asked whether he felt they had contravened the rules, he said: "It's a grey area. It's up to the umpires, but they were happy to wait and see how the pitch played. It would have been interesting to see how it played on the third and fourth days, but because of the weather we'll never know."

Nor did the groundstaff enamour themselves to Durham on Friday, when little attempt was made to get the water off the covers. In the event it didn't matter because the showers kept returning, but in the same circumstances at the Riverside David Measor and his crew would have been far busier.

SO, after the £1 mug of tea (not to mention the inedible £2 ham roll) I can hardly wait to reacquaint myself with the lovely tea ladies at Darlington, where Durham play Derbyshire this week.

The saving grace at Northampton was that there was a Balti house just down the road, where the family-size nan bread for £2.80 would have fed the entire Durham team. I was so full after joining an assault on it that it prevented me from drinking beer at £2.30 a pint afterwards.

Such inflated prices were no deterrent to Wayne Larkins, however. Not that his fondness for the booze features largely in a book about him I spotted in the shop at the Wantage Road ground.

Entitled "A Touch of Genius," it is written by John Wallace, who is apparently a retired schoolteacher from Tunbridge Wells.

I asked a Northampton journalist about it and he described it as the work of a fan, slating the England selectors for not awarding Larkins more caps, but merely glossing over the reasons why.

Despite Martin Love's 251 at Lord's this season, I still consider Larkins' 158 not out, out of a total of 308 when no-one else could cope with Courtney Walsh at Gateshead Fell in 1994, as the best innings played for Durham.

The following year he made 112 at Northampton and was ruled unfit for duty in the following day's Sunday League match. He was apparently a little the worse for wear.

Flawed Genius might have been a better title for the book, and had it told the whole truth I - and many others, I suspect - might have been tempted to buy it.

THERE has been little good news from the second team recently, with the publicity surrounding Darren Gough's outing at Darlington overshadowing the fact that Stephen Harmison bowled eight wides in four overs.

Although Gough went wicketless, Durham were dismissed for 113 and lost the Second X1 Trophy contest by seven wickets. Four days later they were bowled out for 134 by Notts, with forgotten man James Brinkley top scoring with 31 not out to follow his century for Norton.

A washout at York followed on Friday, and they now have to wait until next week to complete their fixtures in this competition with two games against Derbyshire at Dunstall and South Shields. The rust could be even more firmly entrenched by then.

GORDON Muchall is in the England Under 19 team for the first Test against India at Cardiff on July 27-30, ruling him out of Durham's home match against Nottinghamshire. They are hoping Martin Love will be fit by then, but it will be touch and go.

Love is currently the only injured player, which is just as well for previously overworked physio Nigel Kent, who broke a finger during fielding practice.

FORMER Durham captain Nick Speak, who was released at the end of last season, has returned from coaching in Australia to play for his old club Didsbury in the Cheshire County League. In his first outing he made 85 not out as his team overhauled Bramhall's 186 for six with five wickets standing.