ONCE bitten, Paul Collingwood was not going to leave his Durham team vulnerable to any more unwelcome wounds and had to settle for a frustrating draw against Middlesex.

The visitors don't possess anyone capable of sinking his teeth into a target quite as voraciously as Joe Root did when Yorkshire chased down a target of 335 at Chester-le-Street last month. But Collingwood had no regrets about setting Middlesex a target of 304 in 51 overs.

They closed on 165 for six and the captain admitted: "Of course there's always a temptation to declare earlier. But I said after the Yorkshire game I would err on the side of caution in future.

"When you have been on top in a game for so long you don't want to give the opposition a chance to win. And don't forget we knocked off 183 in 21 overs to win at Trent Bridge.

"I think we got the declaration pretty much spot on. It wasn't that which cost us the chance to win, it was losing a full day to the weather."

Durham batted on for 13 overs after lunch before declaring on 240 for six with Scott Borthwick unbeaten on 82. The previous highest score by a Durham No 3 in the last 21 championship games was 58 by Michael Richardson against Sussex in the final game of last season.

After making 52 in the first innings Borthwick has now cemented the position, while Mark Wood also strengthened his claim to a regular place by rekindling Durham's hopes of victory in the final session.

The game looked dead when Middlesex were 41 for one at tea, although Chris Rogers looked very fortunate to survive a Callum Thorp lbw appeal with his score on nine.

Durham brought on Borthwick to try to keep them interested and Rogers and Joe Denly took 32 off his first four overs, then Rogers edged Wood through the slips for four to reach 50. But the Ashington youngster then pinned him lbw and knocked out left-hander Dawid Malan's off stump.

With 22 overs left Collingwood recalled Graham Onions, who hadn't taken a second innings wicket since the first match, and in his third over he had Neil Dexter caught behind and in his fourth he had John Simpson well taken low down at second slip by Borthwick.

There were 15.3 overs left when Gareth Berg joined Denly and he survived for 11 before Wood returned and had him brilliantly caught by Keaton Jennings, posted in the unusual position of leg gully. Jamie Harris helped Denly to see out the remaining overs, with Denly unbeaten on 73.

Wood finished with three for 36 and Collingwood said: "He's a great lad to have around. He's like a coiled spring with lots of energy. To generate the pace he did on a slow pitch was a tremendous effort and Graham Onions was brilliant throughout. It was superb the way he ran in and bowled aggressively when the ball wasn't swinging.

"The pitch was pretty flat and there wasn't much turn, so I'm very proud of the guys for putting in the effort they did. It's another game we've dominated and if we keep playing like that we'll win a lot of matches."

Resuming on 89 for one in the morning, 152 ahead, Durham put safety first as only 20 runs were added in the first 45 minutes.

They stuck to their normal batting order and were 177 for four at lunch, having added 88 in 30 overs, Borthwick making half of those in moving on from his overnight 11 to 55.

Durham batted on to add 63 in 13 overs after lunch, during which Collingwood steered a catch to third man and Phil Mustard drove to mid-off.

Gareth Breese made an unbeaten 20 at a run-a-ball and will hope to keep his place for the next championship match at Taunton, where he has happy memories of scoring a match-winning 165 not out in his first season with Durham.