THE good news is that festival cricket is alive and well. The bad news for Durham is that so is Mark Alleyne.

Last winter's England A captain made only 409 championship runs at 17.78 last summer, but is clearly back in top form on the evidence of yesterday's 132 at Gloucester.

It is not the first time Durham have suffered at Alleyne's hands at a festival venue as he made 169 at Cheltenham in 1997.

After losing the toss for the fourth successive championship game, all went wonderfully well for Durham for 40 minutes as Simon Brown took his first three wickets of the season.

That brought in Alleyne at 28 for three and he dominated a stand of 154 with Chris Taylor before playing second fiddle in a partnership of 82 with Jeremy Snape.

It needed the persistence of off spinner Nicky Phillips to raise Durham's spirits as he removed all three top scorers to become the county's leading wicket-taker in the championship this season with 18.

When he had Alleyne caught at slip by Martin Love, trying to run the ball to third man, Gloucestershire were 283 for six and with relative unknown Mark Hardinges emerging to partner Jack Russell, Durham had a chance to knock over the tail.

But Hardinges, a local seamer playing because Jonathan Lewis is still injured, proved to be no mug with the bat.

He made 20 before playing on to the hard-working Stephen Harmison, then Durham missed a chance to make further inroads as Nicky Peng dropped Martyn Ball at square leg off Michael Gough.

In his second game after injury, Russell kept up his habit of frustrating Durham with an unbeaten 38 as Gloucestershire reached 359 for seven.

The King's School ground, known as Archdeacon Meadow, is not quite in the Cheltenham class, but a sunny midsummer morning offered just about everything a festival crowd could wish for.

A smallish ground, a good pitch and fast outfield offered the prospect of boundaries galore, but it was only as the sun disappeared that Gloucestershire began to prosper.

The early warmth helped Brown find some swing and after his wicketless comeback at Derby he struck in his second, fourth and fifth overs and sent down four more overs in a spell of three for 26.

Dominic Hewson aimed to drive to mid-on and gave a catch to mid-off, Matt Windows was caught off bat and pad at short leg and Kim Barnett edged to third slip.

Harmison got past the bat a few times and clearly surprised the veteran Barnett with his pace, while he almost forced Alleyne to play on with his score on four.

When Ian Hunter replaced Harmison he was immediately hit for two fours by Alleyne, who dished out the same treatment in Phillips' first over.

This was the hallmark of Alleyne's innings. Neat, compact and patient, he would go several overs without scoring then hit successive balls for four, amassing 22 boundaries all around the wicket.

The nearest he came to giving a chance was on 67 when he chipped Hunter just short of square leg, but with Brown sparingly used after lunch as he feels his way back from his side strain, the rest of the seamers posed little threat in unhelpful conditions.

Although he occasionally strayed in length, Phillips settled down well after an unpromising start against the in-form batsmen.

Taylor, fresh from his 196 at Trent Bridge last week, made an untroubled 54 before he fell lbw unwisely trying to sweep.

Snape, who made his maiden century last week, also gave his wicket away immediately after reaching 50. He had gone for his shots with confidence from the outset and went to a 56-ball half-century by sweeping Phillips behind square for four then picking up the next ball on to the roof of a marquee at mid-wicket.

Next ball he went down the pitch and allowed Andrew Pratt to equal the Durham record of ten stumpings in a season with almost two thirds of the season still to go. He has four in the championship and six in one-day games.

l Durham yesterday accepted the advice of a specialist that Neil Killeen should be put in plaster for two weeks following a scan on his troublesome ankle. With hardly any cricket in the first two weeks of July it is likely to be the middle of next month before he is considered for first team action again.

l A meeting at Lord's yesterday postponed a decision until mid-July on where Test matches will be staged from 2003-2007.

Durham chairman Bill Midgley said: "It is frustrating but not necessarily bad news. They want more time to look at the financial implications."

l Durham University's inaugural first class game started with a comfortable innings of 78 from James Foster against Lancashire at the Racecourse Ground yesterday. The students made a respectable 251 as former Durham paceman John Wood remained wicketless and the visitors ended on 18 without loss.