OTTIS Gibson yesterday did his bit to keep Durham's title hopes alive as he savoured the news that he is to be England's bowling coach in the one-day series in Sri Lanka.

He leaves on Tuesday and will be one of several players unable to celebrate a superb season at the Player of the Year dinner.

Gibson, who seems certain to land that prize in his absence, carved another notch in the Durham record book yesterday, along with Michael Di Venuto.

But their efforts were undermined by a collapse from 86 for one to 92 for four in pursuit of Kent's total of 212 before Dale Benkenstein and Phil Mustard guided Durham to 126 for four at the close.

The last man out was Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who provided an exaggerated imitation of his team-mates' efforts in mid-season, when they struggled to readjust to four-day cricket after the Twenty20.

Fresh from the West Indies' early exit in South Africa, Chanderpaul had made only four when he suffered an astonishing rush of blood.

He danced down the pitch to off-spinner James Tredwell, tried to launch the ball into orbit and edged to slip. Twenty20 has a lot to answer for.

After play began an hour late at Canterbury because of rain Di Venuto took four catches at second slip and there were three wickets each for Gibson, Mark Davies and Graham Onions.

But Durham's title hopes had already been diminished by events at Hove. It always seemed likely that Sussex, 2.5 points ahead of Durham, would take maximum points at home to bottom club Worcestershire, and they reached 287 for four on the first day. But Durham could overtake Lancashire, against whom Surrey made 374 for six yesterday.

Di Venuto equalled Wayne Larkins' 1995 record for the number of catches by a Durham fielder in a first-class innings and Gibson broke the record for first-class wickets.

He had already become the first to claim 70 championship scalps in a season, but needed his trio yesterday to pass Simon Brown's 1996 total of 77 first-class wickets, which included eight against Oxford University.

With the top three title contenders all playing in the southeast the weather was not expected to favour one above the others.

But Lancashire had taken a wicket almost an hour before Durham got on the field, and at Hove Sussex raced past 100 without losing a wicket, and they stayed ahead of Durham as they collected their first batting point at roughly the same time as Durham completed the full hand of three for bowling.

That came with the fall of the ninth Kent wicket with the total on 147, but South African lefthander Ryan McLaren then dominated a last-wicket stand of 65 with ex-Durham man Martin Saggers.

They added 49 of those after Saggers was missed on two by Benkenstein at third slip off Onions. Perhaps the captain was trying to knock it up for Di Venuto to break the record.

McLaren pulled Liam Plunkett for two sixes in an over to reach 54 off 55 balls but was unable to add to that before Davies rearranged Saggers' stumps.

Davies bowled well and thoroughly deserved the best figures of three for 43, although they were probably a slight disappointment to him after having two for four after his first four overs.

When play began at 11.30 Durham swiftly made up for lost time as Onions struck with the tenth ball of the match and Gibson with the 17th.

On the ground where he began last year's early-season habit of knocking out stumps by clean bowling Robert Key, Onions nipped one back down the slope to send Joe Denly's leg pole flying.

Then Key pushed forward and edged Gibson to give Di Venuto his most comfortable catch, and Davies also struck quickly when he came on for the 11th over.

Left-hander Matthew Walker groped forward to the fourth ball and edged to Di Venuto, and Davies had conceded only four runs when he found extra bounce in his fourth over for the ball to fly high off Martin van Jaarsveld's bat to the man with magnetic hands.

That brought in Harrow boy Sam Northeast for his first-class debut a month ahead of his 18th birthday. He made five before edging Gibson to Benkenstein at third slip.

At 57 for five Kent looked as though they might fold, but in came Geraint Jones to begin the recovery.

At Riverside in May he made one in each innings and kept wicket with the assurance of a player whose confidence was totally shattered. While his rehabilitation is not complete, he played several fine shots through the off side to reach 32 before Onions took out his off stump.

There was no further batting of note until Durham were frustrated by the last-wicket stand, then, as so often happens after a young player has made a century, Mark Stoneman was brought back to earth by falling to the fourth ball of the Durham innings.

Saggers has always been able to swing it, and this one curved into the left-hander to have him lbw.

But Kyle Coetzer has shown he can cope with the new ball in settling into the No 3 spot and he quickly forged ahead of Di Venuto, timing the ball superbly before falling for 44 in Tredwell's first over, caught at short leg.

In the next over Di Venuto turned a harmless leg-side ball from McLaren to wicketkeeper Jones, and Chanderpaul's exit made it three wickets in 13 balls.

If Lancashire take maximum bonus points from a draw, Durham need 21 points to go ahead of them, which means they have to make 350 then go on to win. So they need the unbroken partnership to flourish today.