THERE were even a few hardy Scots among the Bank Holiday souls who braved the whistling wind at Riverside yesterday to see Durham take another step towards the Friends Provident Trophy semi-final.

Other than the batting of their young Tasmanian George Bailey and to a lesser extent the efforts of Majid Haq, the Scots' cricket was as dispiriting as the weather.

In fact, Durham made slightly heavy weather of easing home by five wickets with six overs to spare, with Will Smith unbeaten on 62 after being dropped on nought and 42.

Perhaps the visitors had a few drams too many in celebration of their win at Old Trafford the previous day as without Bailey's clean hitting in his innings of 92 off 105 balls they would have had little to offer.

After choosing to bat the Scots slipped to 114 for seven before Bailey and former Yorkshire bowler John Blain put on 76 to help them to a total of 205.

They were all out with 2.2 overs unused, helping to make up for the ten minutes lost to rain at the start and the brief interruption when they were 154 for seven.

With Michael Di Venuto staying in the pavilion after being struck twice on an arm, Gareth Breese seized the chance to open Durham's innings against some lacklustre bowling and scored 41 before his stand of 60 with Phil Mustard ended.

The left-hander edged to fellow wicketkeeper Colin Smith, who then dropped Smith three balls later.

The Durham No 3 quickly began to profit and Breese, suddenly finding himself becalmed, lost patience and lofted a catch to deep mid-off in medium pacer Ian Moran's first over.

That brought in Kyle Coetzer against his former teammates and he drove successive balls from Moran for four and six on his way to 22 before Scotland turned to the off spin of Majid Haq.

With the total already on 120 it seemed a little late to introduce a bowler who greatly impressed at Riverside four years ago, when he took four for 36 as a teenager in a game Scotland won by three wickets.

He was down to bat at 11 in that match and subsequently lost his place for a couple of years, partly for being unathletic.

While he still can't field, he now opens the batting and still bowls with a nice loop. With his third ball yesterday he had Coetzer caught behind, but Garry Park emerged to sweep him for four via a misfield, then benefited from four overthrows as the fourth wicket partnership began to flourish.

But Park fell for 17 and Dale Benkenstein for 19 before Ottis Gibson came in with 13 needed and finished the match with a swept six off Haq.

With matches elsewhere being washed out, Durham's fourth win in five games in the competition put them into third place in the northern group.

They enjoyed a little early luck as Fraser Watts trod on his stumps when he slipped in turning a ball from Graham Onions to mid-wicket, then Haq was run out by Park's direct hit when called for a suicidal single.

Bailey, a 24-year-old team-mate of Di Venuto, was at fault for that but it didn't jolt his confidence as he had made only one when he lifted Gibson to long-on for four.

The biggest of his three sixes soared over the same area off the same bowler, but Gibson finally persuaded him to chip a catch to mid-wicket as he and Onions both finished with three wickets.

Onions was slightly flattered because he struggled more than anyone in the unpleasant conditions and fed left-hander Haq's leg-side strength in his opening spell.

Mark Davies did better when replacing him to bowl downwind and bowled straight through his ten overs to take two for 27.

Neil Killeen, battling against the draught, was even more economical in taking one for 20 in nine overs.

The only time Durham had any cause for concern was when Gibson replaced Killeen at 30 for one after ten overs and 18 runs came off the next two.

But Gibson moved one away to have the dangerous Ryan Watson caught by Mustard and wickets fell regularly until Bailey and Blain decided it would be sensible to try to bat out the overs.

There were 11 overs left at the rain break and on the resumption Bailey blasted Benkenstein for six then dabbed Breese delicately for four to third man before launching Gibson into orbit.

He fell in Gibson's next over and there was little further help for Blain, who remained unbeaten on 22.

Once Breese's leg-side clips and pulls had given Durham their brisk start they were able to cruise to victory with no threat from the weather.

They expect Di Venuto to be fit for Friday's visit of Worcestershire in the same competition.