DURHAM recovered from the shock of losing Simon Katich first ball largely through Jon Lewis's first century for just over a year against Somerset at the Riverside yesterday.

With 31 overs lost to rain in the middle of the day, opener Lewis survived to finish on 113 not out as Durham reached 215 for five.

An encouraging final hour finished on a disappointing note when Muazam Ali recklessly hooked a catch to long leg in the final over.

It hadn't taken Somerset long to realise they could snare him that way, and despite the blatant trap they set he continued to play the ill-controlled stroke despite two lucky escapes.

Ali had contributed 18 to a stand of 57 with Lewis, who is now left with the tail today to achieve the total of 300 which Durham need on an easy-paced pitch.

Since arriving from Essex for the 1997 season, Lewis has tended to follow a good season with a moderate one and was averaging 19.17 in the championship going into this match with a top score of 66.

But he shouldered the responsibility superbly after Katich's exit and was as harsh as ever on anything short outside off stump in reaching his fifth championship hundred for Durham off 199 balls with 14 fours.

After a shaky start, Durham rebuilt through a century stand between Lewis and Paul Collingwood before rain intervened in the fourth over after lunch.

Durham have had only five hundred partnerships in the championship this season, and one in the National League, and all had involved Katich until yesterday.

After Durham had won the toss, the Australian went to the crease in the ninth over after Michael Gough edged Graham Rose to second slip.

The bowling had carried little threat, but Katich shaped to drive and got an inside edge into off and middle stumps to register his first duck for Durham. He couldn't recall being out first ball before, even in club cricket in Australia.

At 17 for two and with the cornerstone of their batting gone, there would have been a few frayed nerves in the Durham camp. But once Collingwood had played and missed at the hat-trick ball he settled to survive six overs before the going eased dramatically.

The score was 33 for two after 15 overs when Somerset made a double change. With Andrew Caddick pulled out by England, three seamers injured, Peter Trego on England Under-19 duty and all-rounder Michael Burns on paternity leave, the back-up bowling was always likely to be second rate.

And so it proved as it took only 2.1 overs to double the score. Jamie Grove bowled a wide and a no-ball before Lewis cracked two successive balls to the boundary either side of point.

Then Paul Jarvis's first over cost 17. He started with a wide then continued to feed Lewis outside off stump and was hit for three fours.

It is 19 long summers since Jarvis became the youngest player to appear for Yorkshire at 16, and since they saw fit to release him seven years ago he has survived more on reputation than achievement.

No doubt he thought his first-class days were over as Somerset intended to play him only in one-day games this season.

But he apparently bowled well at Scarborough last Sunday, and in the unlikely circumstances of Jarvis being one of the fittest bowlers available, Somerset decided to give him one last chance in his native North-East.

He had one moral victory when Lewis edged him wide of what had been a more heavily populated slip cordon for the bowling of Rose and Steffan Jones.

Otherwise there was cause only to lament that a man who on his day could be the fastest in the land should come to this. Four overs cost 31 runs and Durham had been handed the initiative.

Grove, 14 years Jarvis's junior, was little better and Somerset had to turn to the steady medium pace of Keith Parsons to restore sanity.

They also tried England's new opening batsman, Marcus Trescothick, who tested the wicketkeeper more than the batsmen, and had a seventh bowler on before lunch in left-arm spinner Ian Blackwell.

On a day when the first run did not arrive until the fifth over, the third-wicket pair reached their 50 stand off 42 balls and took it to 100 when Collingwood drove Parsons past mid-off for four just before the rain arrived.

Collingwood fell for 34 on the 4.25 resumption, edging a drive to Turner, then Nick Speak struggled for 14 overs for seven.

Jarvis returned and after opening with a wide he asked for a third slip and immediately saw Lewis, on 81, edge between Parsons and Peter Bowler, neither of whom moved a muscle.

But Jarvis had his reward when Speak played across a straight one and was lbw.

Ali clipped the next ball superbly off his toes for four, but a peeved Jarvis quickly discovered that the 5ft 7in batsman is apparently a compulsive hooker and almost had him caught twice.

After his nightmare start in first-class cricket, Ali deserved some luck. But he could have cashed in further had a little voice in his brain told him to take no risks in that final over.

l Among Somerset's casualties is Durham's original academy boy Ian Jones, from Sacriston.

He made his first-class debut in the equivalent game last season, has played once since and will miss the whole of this season with an ankle injury