PAUL Collingwood can leave for Zimbabwe with the England one-day squad at the end of the month with no fears about his form.

After his brilliant start to the season, the Durham all-rounder had travelled the route of many before him in suffering as a result of his flirtations with England.

But he was back to his best yesterday as a glittering century took him past 1,000 first-class runs for the first time.

Sadly he got out straight after pulling Chris Liptrot for the six which took him to 103, and Durham went into a decline which continued through the afternoon.

From 314 for four they subsided to 369 all out, then Phil Weston was badly missed on 16 as his dashing unbeaten 55 took Worcestershire to 76 for one at tea.

Although he also passed 1,000 runs, it was not a great knock by Durham-born Weston, who also survived several edges, and he departed without adding to his score.

Then Ian Hunter, whose first four overs cost 33 runs, suddenly took two wickets to reduce the visitors to 93 for four.

Cricket is never dull when the enigmatic Hunter is involved and he rattled Vikram Solanki's stumps then achieved lift-off from just short of a length to have David Leatherdale caught behind.

Since making a superb unbeaten 91 in his team's floodlit win at Worcester, Solanki has survived one, two and three balls in three championship innings against Durham. Graeme Hick also made a duck in the first innings at Kidderminster, but no-one could find the unplayable ball for him yesterday and he put away the bad ones with his usual precision.

He was on 68 not out when Worcestershire reached the close on 163 for five, 206 behind.

Durham's total was nine more than their previous highest of the season, made at home to Sussex when the tail wagged merrily.

This time it barely stirred, which was disappointing after the overnight pair had added 61 in 14 overs before Jon Lewis was out for 129.On 97 overnight, he ran the first ball of the third over to third man to reach 100 off 260 balls and survived a difficult chance to the wicketkeeper next ball.

Counting the centuries they made in the opening match against Durham University, Lewis and Collingwood have both made three hundreds this year, while Lewis remains 19 short of 1,000 runs.

They were clearly looking to press on for maximum batting points when Lewis chipped Liptrot to mid-wicket.

The new ball was taken at 285 for three and Collingwood was missed on 81 by Solanki at second slip off Andy Bichel. It was his only blemish and when he reached his hundred off 155 balls he was playing so well it seemed he might add the 90 which would have taken him to the more rewarding landmark of 1,000 championship runs.

But he drove rather airily at Liptrot and edged to Steve Rhodes in the over after Jimmy Daley edged a lifter from Bichel to second slip to continue his disappointing home form. Danny Law, unusually subdued, survived 23 overs in an effort to hold the tail together. But there was little resistance, with Hunter staying true to form by cracking a lovely cover drive to the boundary then wafting a catch to backward point.

Not once reaching 400 in 130 overs, which is necessary for full batting points, will be seen as one of Durham's failures this season.

Another has been the frequently erratic use of the new ball, but Stephen Harmison posed a few problems for the left-handed Weston.

On 12 an edge just eluded second slip, then a hook to long leg went through Nicky Hatch's hands at head height and carried for six.

Hatch made the breakthrough when Anurag Singh shouldered arms and lost his off stump, but Weston sped to 50 off 53 balls.

He departed for 55 when he edged Law to Collingwood at second slip shortly before Law limped off. Hick played himself in quietly while Weston went for his strokes.

But he hit Hunter for two fours before the bowler's double strike and in a fifth wicket stand of 38 Paul Pollard made only three before he played on in Graeme Bridge's second over.

Bridge almost had another success with Hick on 62 as a slight leading edge flew high to extra cover, where Gary Pratt just failed to reach it.

And Bichel had a lucky escape on seven when an inside edge off Hatch just missed his leg stump. One over later the umpires offered the batsmen the light with seven overs remaining and they readily accepted the chance to depart

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