WHILE everyone else in London continued to revel in the Queen's Jubilee celebrations, Durham yesterday completed two and a half days of largely unrewarding toil in the field at Lord's.

When Middlesex followed on 180 behind and slipped to 29 for three at lunch, Durham's first championship win of the season was on the cards.

But the flagging bowlers failed to strike in the afternoon session as Middlesex cut out the misjudgements which had contributed heavily to the loss of all three wickets.

Like Andrew Strauss in the last over before lunch, Owais Shah was lbw without offering a stroke in the third over after tea. But his painstaking 37 had helped Ed Joyce put on 101 and the left-handed Dubliner went on to make 71 before he too kept Durham's hopes flickering.

There were 24 overs left and Middlesex still trailed by 35 when he handed Gordon Muchall his first championship wicket by carelessly clipping a catch to mid-wicket.

But there were no more errors by Middlesex as Paul Weekes and Abdur Razzaq took the score to 194 for five, a lead of 14, when Durham accepted the opportunity to call a halt at 5.30.

There were still eight overs available, but with two overs to be deducted between innings before Durham could bat again, and the bowlers shattered, there was no hope of victory.

The pitch continued to offer nothing - not even a modicum of turn for Graeme Bridge, although when he had the chance to bowl into the footmarks outside Joyce's off stump he rarely hit them.

After capturing only six of the required eight wickets last week against Gloucestershire, it was the second successive deeply frustrating Monday for Durham.

They travel on to Edgbaston today to play Warwickshire in the National League and will be joined by Danny Law, who has recovered from his back injury and will make his first senior appearance since the match against Durham University in mid-April.

The signs were already ominous when Durham needed ten overs to capture Middlesex's last first innings wicket in the morning.

The task was entrusted to Mark Davies and Nicky Hatch, who finally struck when he went round the wicket to Phil Tufnell in his fifth over.

Tufnell twice flashed and missed before edging the sixth ball to Andrew Pratt, leaving Aaron Laraman unbeaten on a career-best 45.

Middlesex lost two wickets in the third over when they followed on, starting with the run out of Sven Koenig.

He pushed to Gary Pratt at cover and failed to beat the fielder's direct hit at the non-striker's end.

Pratt ran out Matt Windows in both of Gloucestershire's innings last week, and after seeing off David Nash in the first innings at Lord's he can now expect batsmen to be more wary of his predatory instincts.

Nash went second ball yesterday, trying too late to withdraw his bat and edging Neil Killeen to Andrew Pratt.

With the score on 23, Strauss and Shah went 46 balls without scoring, and Shah took 33 balls to get off the mark, finally scampering a risky single to mid-on. He might well have been out had Davies hit the stumps. Killeen beat Strauss three times with late movement and with two balls left to lunch he made one hold its line to have the strokeless left-hander lbw.

A light shower six overs after lunch cost Durham six overs, but in the event it might as well have poured down for the rest of the day.

Hatch bowled 13 overs in the morning, with only the break between innings, and was not called on again, with the continued use of Muchall after claiming Joyce's wicket indicating that the seamers were a spent force.

There were 12 overs left when Razzaq drove Muchall through the covers to wipe out the arrears, Middlesex having taken a total of 233.2 overs to pass the 645 Durham made in 153 overs.

If pitches are to continue as good as this, Durham will hope that the swing of Simon Brown and the pace of Stephen Harmison are available to them as soon as possible