IT WAS just as well for Middlesex that Steve Harmison is not playing in their match at Riverside as they appeared to have little stomach for the fight against Durham's four seamers, who were superbly led by Graham Onions yesterday.

There were two tasty instances of caught Mustard, bowled Onions among the youngster's four wickets as the visitors subsided for 242, and Durham built on their lead of 106 by reaching 80 for two.

There was also much talk of Onions bringing tears to the eyes as the first ball faced by Jamie Dalrymple was a high full toss which hit him in the unmentionables, forcing him to retire until three more wickets had fallen.

He returned to put on 54 in nine overs with Nick Compton, but it was muck-or-nettles batting which ended when Compton heaved across the line and was bowled by Gareth Breese. The batsman departed with a thud of the bat into the turf and a clearly audible obscenity, of which his grandfather, Denis, would not have approved.

Compton twice blasted Ottis Gibson for six, once over extra cover and once straight, in making 48, which was exceeded only by Owais Shah with 68.

Although he faced 132 balls, Shah's innings rarely suggested permanence as no-one in the Middlesex line-up seemed prepared to graft as Durham's century-maker Jimmy Maher had done.

Although there were several strokes confirming his undoubted class, Shah failed to connect with numerous pulls from outside off stump and finally fell attempting the shot to a straight one from Mick Lewis, giving Mustard one of his five catches.

Two of them were held off Callum Thorp, who emerged with the outstanding figures of three for 19 in 15 overs.

He took a wicket with the second ball of his first spell and the third of his second, and proved impossible to get away on a day when Gibson, perhaps not appreciating his relegation to second change, went for 66 off 13 overs.

Like Onions, who appeared to have Compton lbw second ball, Gibson did not appreciate having a justifiably confident appeal turned down, also by reserve list umpire Steve Garratt, with the same batsman on nine.

Durham's last pair added eight runs in the morning before Lewis was lbw to a slower ball from Johann Louw with two needed for the fourth batting point.

Onions' 22 not out was his first career-best of the day, while his four for 82 also surpassed his best bowling of three for 91 against Kent three weeks ago.

Onions' sixth ball skidded on to Ed Smith to pin him lbw, then Shah survived a leading edge just wide of cover off Lewis to dominate a stand of 43 with skipper Ben Hutton.

Shah swung a straight ball from Lewis over square leg for six, but when Thorp came on at 54 for one after 12 overs his second ball swung into left-hander Hutton to have him lbw for nine.

Another left-hander, Ed Joyce, was taken down the leg side by Mustard off Onions, Shah was next to go, then Thorp's away swing snared the next two.

This brought Dalrymple back in with a runner and Compton reacted by going for his shots. Dalrymple joined in when Onions returned pulling his first two ball for four and six, which just cleared the fielder at long leg.

It couldn't last and after Compton's surrender Onions had Dalrymple caught behind then splattered Melvyn Betts' stumps with a first ball yorker.

When Durham batted again there were increasing signs of variable bounce, but Jon Lewis countered it by getting solidly into line for an unbeaten 28.

Gary Pratt matched his obduracy after coming in at 27 for two and they survived the final 23 overs.

If Durham can get the lead up to 300 today they should be confident of inflicting Middlesex's third successive defeat.

Read more about Durham here.