THE Durham Board XI hope to book a trip to Lord's today when they face Norfolk in the semi-final of the ECB 38-County Trophy at Hartlepool (11am).

After scraping through their group by the skin of their teeth, Durham had a comfortable win against Lincolnshire in the quarter-finals and victory today will take them to the Lord's final on September 4.

There is a strong Teesside presence, with Stockton batsman Richard Waite being called up alongside Norton products Marc Symington and Mark Davies.

Davies has impressed in one-day games for the Durham senior side recently. He is on a development contract with the county, while all-rounder Symington is a full staff member but has not appeared in the first team this season.

Durham Academy members in the Board X1 are wicketkeeper Phil Mustard, plus all-rounders Ian Pattison and Chris Mann, who made a century for Durham seconds against Northants at Milton Keynes last week.

Durham Board: Q Hughes (capt), A Worthy, D Blenkiron, C Mann, R Waite, S Humble, I Pattison, M Symington, P Mustard, A Day, M Davies.

Any hope of play on the first day of Durham's County Championship match against Derbyshire at the Riverside was abandoned at 1pm yesterday.

It was Durham's first washed out day in the championship since April 28, the final day of their match against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge.

As they strive for a second successive win following the victory over Worcestershire at Kidderminster, Durham will hope that the pitch is not as batsman-friendly as recent Riverside wickets.

Otherwise they will struggle to bowl out bottom club Derbyshire twice in the time left available.

With three games left after this one, the only Durham batsman with a good chance of joining Martin Love in scoring 1,000 championship runs is Paul Collingwood.

Despite missing three matches while on England one-day duty, Collingwood still tops the Durham averages with 785 runs at 56.07, closely followed by Love on 54.78.

Love was said to be livid with himself when he got out for 58 at Kidderminster on Sunday as he has now made 11 half-centuries but got out ten times between 50 and 78.

No-one has made a century in the last seven championship matches for Durham, the last ones being Love's 149 not out and Jon Lewis's 112 in the home win against Nottinghamshire on June 2.

Danny Law's recent surge has made him comfortably the leading wicket-taker with 35, and at his current strike rate he has time to reach 50 for the first time in his career.