A STUNNING stumping by Andrew Pratt gave Durham a sniff of victory in their C & G Trophy quarter-final against Lancashire yesterday. But one-day expert Neil Fairbrother quickly took it away from them.

The 37-year-old left-hander gave a master class in how to work the ball into gaps for ones and twos, while Andrew Flintoff struck the more brutal blows in a seven-wicket win.

Their stand of 136 carried Lancashire home with 11.2 overs to spare after they came together at 46 for two in reply to Durham's 198 for seven.

Fairbrother arrived on the exit of pinch-hitter Glen Chapple, who made a sprightly 23 before leaving his crease to a ball from Danny Law which was two feet wide of leg stump.

Pratt had the bails off before you could say Robbie Williams, whose appearance at Old Trafford resulted in this high-profile match being played in front of a 5,000 crowd at Blackpool.

Williams is, in fact, giving three concerts, said to be worth £200,000 to Lancashire, who have problems on and off the field.

Perhaps the realisation that they need to win this competition to appease disgruntled members spurred their players yesterday as they took charge of this contest almost from the first ball.

After Jon Lewis had lost yet another toss, Durham had to bat in the sort of sticky atmosphere in which Simon "Chubby" Brown would have swung the ball prodigiously.

Unfortunately the only Chubby Brown performing in Blackpool yesterday was the blue comedian at the Winter Gardens.

Chapple and Peter Martin exploited the conditions superbly, then Durham found that the pitch also took spin as they were further shackled by the off-spin of Gary Yates, whose only previous senior appearance this season was against Durham University.

Yates, a potential signing for Durham were it not for his involvement in a family business, struck a cruel blow for Durham when he had Martin Love lbw for 38.

Love hit several majestic leg-side fours but, unlike Fairbrother, also drove several powerful strokes straight at fielders. He was quite well forward trying to sweep when he was out and umpire John Hampshire would have had to be convinced that the ball was going straight on.

Yates finished with two for 23 in his ten overs and the other spinner, Chris Schofield, also bowled his full allocation and took a return catch off a leading edge to remove Lewis for nine.

Top scorer for Durham was Paul Collingwood with 60. He swept Schofield for six to reach 50 off 67 balls, but the loss in quick succession of Lewis and Martin Speight left him carrying a large burden.

There were still 18 overs left when Speight came in at 117 for four, but he immediately tried to hit Yates wide of long-on and was bowled.

Durham had simply not put together the necessary stands, 47 for the third wicket between Love and Collingwood being the best.

But Michael Gough played a good supporting role in putting on 41 with Collingwood before the latter fell in the 45th over, getting an inside edge on to his pad only to see the ball fly straight into the hands of short extra cover.

Pratt emerged to play much as he did in the last five overs of Durham's innings in their Norwich Union League win against Lancashire at the Riverside.

Improvising well and striking the ball cleanly, his unbeaten 26 - with 11 coming off Chapple's final over - ensured that Durham took 79 off the last ten overs after averaging three runs an over to that point.

Gough also struck a couple of effective blows before slicing to third man in the penultimate over.

There could be no denying that Lancashire had bowled well, continually beating the bat early on until Martin surprised Nicky Peng with one which swung in late to have him lbw.

The bowling was too good for Danny Law to fulfil his role as a pinch-hitter and he had made only 12 when he dabbed at a ball from John Wood in the 16th over and was caught behind. Law also opened the bowling, but both he and Mark Davies came under attack from Chapple before Davies made the breakthrough, delightedly capturing the scalp of Mike Atherton.

The ball pitched on leg stump and did just enough to beat the bat and have Atherton lbw for 14.

Then came Pratt's piece of magic, which was so swift and skilful that old sages in the Press tent were saying it was the best they had seen for years.

Pratt might have been a contender for man-of-the-match had Lancashire's third wicket pair not overshadowed him.

Fairbrother was out for 73 with 17 needed, so with two wickets to go with his 72 not out, Flintoff took the man-of-the-match award on a ground where he played some of his early Northern League cricket as a member of St Anne's.

He had made only four when he edged Davies wide of the only slip for four, which prompted a few words from the young bowler.

The next ball was outside leg stump and Flintoff picked it up behind square for six, taking the opportunity to say a few words in return.

Winding up the 15st Flintoff was probably not the wisest thing Davies has done, but skipper Lewis had no complaints.

"They had a bit of a confrontation, but Mark was not going to back down and all credit to him," said Lewis."I have been very impressed with him.

"Losing the toss was not important because we would probably have batted anyway. But they bowled very well and swung it a lot early on.

"Their one-day season would have ended had they lost today and they looked a bit more up for it than in our previous meetings.

"Neil Fairbrother is an outstanding one-day player when he is in that frame of mind and Andrew Flintoff also played well. We were trying to get him to do something silly, but it never happened."