Durham on the up as Brown leads the way

They dimissed their visitors for 249 and will stay sixth if Kent and Hampshire both fail to win, as looks likely.

Simon Brown, 31 on Thursday, had further cause for celebration when he reached 500 first-class wickets with the first of his six victims.

But to prove that the excellent Feethams pitch was still full of runs Durham were seriously delayed by an eighth-wicket stand of 80 between Steve Titchard and Tim Munton.

Titchard, who had nine seasons with Lancashire without ever commanding a regular place, played an innings of steady deceleration to reach 87 not out while Munton made 52.

It was only Munton's third half-century in 16 seasons of first-class cricket and he fell two short of his highest score of 54 not out, made at Worcester in 1996.

Brown began his career with Northamptonshire, but in his ninth season with Durham he is continuing the healthy strike rate which has consistently brought him more than 50 wickets a season.

After Durham declared at their overnight score of 479 for nine, 328 ahead, Brown reached the 500 landmark with the third ball of the day, an innocuous leg-side delivery which Steve Stubbings tickled to Martin Speight.

Despite having two days to bat, neither Mathew Dowman nor Michael di Venuto were in any mood to grind it out on a pitch which had yielded 391 runs the previous day.

The Tasmanian left-hander, averaging over 50 in the championship, raced to 11 before he played back to a ball from Melvyn Betts which skidded on to him and had him lbw in the fourth over.

At that point it seemed Derbyshire might surrender as meekly as when they were all out for 130 in their second innings at the Riverside last season.

But Dowman's bold approach lit up the next 90 minutes as he dominated a stand of 101 with Steve Titchard.

Still the possessor of the highest score in youth Tests - 267 against the West Indies at Hove in 1993 - Dowman was released by Nottinghamshire at the end of last season with a first-class average of 28.92 and has continued to show little sign of realising his potential.

But there was more than a glimpse of his ability yesterday, and with such a big lead it was strange to see Steve Harmison bowling to him in the 13th over with two deep gullies and a deep backward square leg.

The score had raced along to 63 by that stage and Durham continued to try to buy Dowman's wicket by introducing Simon Katich's chinamen.

It was to no avail as a long hop was pulled for four to take the left-hander to 50 off 84 balls, which included ten boundaries. He added two more before he fell for 61, whipping a leg stump ball from Betts straight to Harmison, astutely placed 20 yards in from the boundary at long leg.

Matt Cassar fenced at a ball from Harmison straight after lunch to be caught behind, then Brown's swing earned him three wickets to reduce Derbyshire to 162 for seven and bring Durham's biggest first-class win in sight.

The visitors still needed 39 to get inside the innings and 127-run defeat Gloucestershire suffered at Cheltenham last season, and judging by the way Munton lost his middle stump first ball to Betts in the first innings their chances looked slim.

This time he played the first ball uppishly back towards the bowler, but then settled down with increasing comfort. Some early flicks off his legs went perilously close to hand, but the same strokes later flew over mid-wicket for four and he also drove Katich over long-on for six.

He had been playing the other seamers with comfort, but when Brown returned after tea he immediately had Munton in trouble and his 113-ball innings ended when he chipped a catch to short mid-wicket.

Betts had Kevin Dean caught at slip to finish with match figures of ten for 88, then Brown wrapped it up by bowling Lian Wharton.

l DURHAM are bringing academy boy Mark Davies, the seamer from Norton, into their squad for tomorrow's National League game against Derbyshire at Feethams.

Nicky Phillips, Ian Hunter and Marc Symington are also drafted in