DURHAM handed out four caps before yesterday's match at the Riverside then produced their worst one-day performance of the season.

Defeat by three wickets against Essex, who are third bottom, was a severe blow to Durham's hopes of promotion in the Norwich Union League.

A belated effort to pull the match out of the fire produced some late drama, but Durham University's Jamie Foster halted Essex's seven overs of madness and saw them home with 3.1 overs to spare.

Durham were all out for 178 then saw Darren Robinson propel Essex to 103 before their second wicket fell in the 20th over.

Four wickets for Nicky Phillips gave Durham hope then Nicky Peng ran ten yards to take a brilliant diving catch at deep backward square leg to get rid of Ronnie Irani.

At 141 for seven Durham were suddenly marginal favourites, but with the spinners bowled out the seamers were unable to apply the killer blows.

Skipper Jon Lewis even gambled on two overs of off spin from Martin Love - his first bowl of the season - but neither Foster nor Richard Clinton would be tempted into an indiscretion.

The award of caps to Peng, Phillips, Danny Law and Andrew Pratt looked ill-timed as Durham looked like being thrashed until Robinson became the first of several batsmen to surrender.

Prolific Australian Stuart Law was another, falling second ball when he chipped Phillips tamely to mid-wicket.

After two successive defeats, Durham will now have to win at home to Worcestershire in their final match next Sunday to clinch promotion.

The pitch was not of the same standard as the ones on which Durham made 269 against Derbyshire and 259 against Hampshire in their last two home NUL matches.

They chose to bat but achieved fluency only when Peng and Love were taking the score from 29 to 62 between the tenth and 15th overs.

Although there was help for the seamers, it was the left-arm spin of Paul Grayson which inflicted real damage as he removed Love, Paul Collingwood and Law in taking three for 23 in nine overs.

Grayson, from Bedale, took all his wickets at crucial times, starting with his first ball when he came on with Durham on 81 for two after 20 overs. Love tried to push him away on the off side and was bowled for 36. With his runs coming off 43 balls with five fours, Love was the most fluent Durham batsman, and on the only other two occasions when they pressed the accelerator Grayson halted the progress immediately.

Collingwood took ten off an over from medium pacer Graham Napier then tried to cut the first ball of Grayson's next over and edged to wicketkeeper Foster.

Then Law hit Ashley Cowan for ten in an over and was bowled next ball by Grayson, whose variations of flight also tied down Jimmy Daley.

The difficulty of fitting Daley into a one-day order was again underlined as he scored only 11 in the last 11 overs of the innings before being last out for 35 with two balls unused.

Daley played well enough in putting on 46 for the fifth wicket with Collingwood in 12 overs, but the need to step on the gas with ten overs left brought Collingwood's demise and Daley lost his timing.

The troubles began when Pratt suffered his third failure as a pinch-hitting opener since his 86 against Derbyshire.

He had already skied one attempted pull over the wicketkeeper when another failed to clear Foster.

The fact that Peng was unusually circumspect proved batting wasn't easy, but he had hit four good fours when he tried to drive Irani and lost his leg stump.

Love was next to go and there was a rare one-day failure from Lewis when he played on against young seamer Andy Clarke.

From 88 for four, Collingwood and Daley got things back on track until the former fell for 31 just as he was moving into overdrive.

Other than Law's ten runs in an over, the only other blow of note for Durham in the last ten overs came when last man Nicky Hatch drove Irani for a glorious straight six off the third ball of the final over.

He tried to take a single to cover off the next ball and Daley became the second run-out victim. He earlier declined a run to backward point when Stephen Peters made a good stop and Daley and Phillips found themselves at the same end.

After Law had Napier held at slip by Love with the Essex score on 23, the visitors surprisingly sent in bowler Ashley Cowan at No 3.

He didn't need to use the long handle as Robinson suddenly began to blossom, hitting Stephen Harmison for three successive fours.

He had four other boundaries in his 49-ball half-century and reached 64 before being bowled when giving Graeme Bridge the charge.

Bridge got through nine tidy overs for only 29 runs, then Phillips overcame early punishment to take the next four wickets.

Cowan's airy waft saw him bowled for 29, Law went two balls later, then Peters' good innings of 20 ended when he played on, making room to hit Phillips through the off side.

Realising they had to bowl Essex out, Durham were not afraid to post attacking fielders and Phillips had Grayson caught at silly point to finish with four for 36.

Then came Peng's catch off Collingwood, but the return of Harmison failed to ruffle either Foster or left-hander Richard Clinton, who had time on their side and played very sensibly in their unbroken stand of 38