DURHAM have signed Australian-born all-rounder Ashley Thorpe, this season's Chester-le-Street professional, and also offered full contracts to three more products of their academy.

England Under 19 all-rounder Gordon Muchall, wicketkeeper Phil Mustard and South Shields all-rounder Chris Mann will take the total of North-Easterners in the full-time squad to 16 out of 22.

Last year's captain Nick Speak and wicketkeeper Martin Speight have been released after five years with the club.

Thorpe, 26, is married to an English girl and also has a residential qualification after living in this country for seven years.

He hit 138 and 85 on his debut for Durham seconds against Yorkshire at Darlington last week and scored five centuries and more than 1,000 runs in total in helping Chester-le-Street to the North-East Premier League title. He is also a right-arm medium pace swing bowler.

Muchall, who will be 19 in November, is a Durham School product who was born in Newcastle and, like Nicky Peng, has benefited from coaching as a member of the Northumberland elite squad.

Mustard, 19 next month, comes from Sunderland and has been with the academy for three years.

Speak, 34, had ten years with Lancashire before joining Durham, where he has settled with his Australian wife and two young children. He was desperately disappointed to be relieved of the captaincy towards the end of last season after a bust-up at Derby, where he felt some players let him down in a match Durham needed to win to have a chance of division one survival.

He returned from a winter in Australia in good form and was in the team at the start of the season. But a torn hamstring kept him out for several weeks and he was unable to force his way back in.

In 54 first-class games for Durham, Speak scored 2,292 runs at an average of 28.65, while Speight played 70 matches and had 2,411 runs at 23.87.

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