By Mike Beddow at Edgbaston
First day of four: Durham (17 for 1) trail Warwickshire (336) by 319 runs
EDGBASTON thawed out yesterday to the local radio station's mood music: ``Lash 'em, Lara; lash 'em Lara.'' A Caribbean occasion it was not. Neither for Brian Lara nor for the anorak division on the wind buffeted terraces.
Instead, it was a day for those of lesser status and greater insulation against the cold. John Wood, a well-padded 15.5 stone, dismissed Lara for a duck in a spell of two for 12 in seven overs and Neil Smith resuscitated Warwickshire with a rousing 113 from 123 balls.
The presence of Lara and the eye-catching nature of Smith's batting undoubtedly served the interests of Ed Giddins in permitting a relatively quiet return to county cricket in the evening gloom.
Media scrutiny, which unfairly burdened Lara only 24 hours after his arrival from Trinidad, had become less intense by the time Giddins took a wicket with his fifth delivery at the end of a 19-month ban for a drugs offence.
Jonathan Lewis's misjudgment in leaving a ball which hit off stump left Durham uneasily perched on 17 for one when bad light halted their reply to Warwickshire's 336. This was substantially better than they would have anticipated in the morning.
Lara's first championship innings in four seasons spanned 12 minutes, eight balls and a change of helmet, from Warwickshire blue to West Indies maroon. When compared with his last appearance against Durham in 1994, the short fall amounted to 6hr 42min and 501 runs.
His misfortune yesterday was not so much in following a ball leaving the off stump, or that Martin Speight held a regulation catch of the type dropped by Chris Scott when Lara had made only 18 in his world record score. Where he went wrong was in losing the toss.
Melvyn Betts, who finished with a deserved return of five for 66, whipped out Dominic Ostler's off stump in the first over and Warwickshire became 24 for three when Wood's inward movement defeated Nick Knight, like Lara a recent refugee from sweltering heat in the West Indies. His was an uncomfortable 55-minute adjustment to early season English conditions.
Any half decent seam attack, even one with Durham's limitations in the absence of Simon Brown, would have queued up to bowl on a damp, seaming surface. For Wood, initially at least, it was an opportunity not to be scorned.
Last year he finished 134th in the national bowling averages and after six hard-working but unspectacular seasons, there may be more than one reason for his Who's Who entry: ``Still wish I could have been a professional footballer.''
Too often he would have seen Durham squander positions of strength, as they did here. The second-line bowling was spanked around by David Hemp until a partnership of 91 ended when Trevor Penney, in defensive mode, played on to Betts.
Nick Phillips, the former Sussex off-spinner, then took a wicket with his seventh ball - Hemp caught at silly point - but from 116 for five at lunch, Smith reached fifty in 44 balls and scored 108 of the 202 added in the afternoon.
This was his second century in four innings, following 148 against Gloucestershire last September, and as always the key note was in making room for thumping drives over or through the off side.
Dougie Brown sensibly complemented him in a partnership of 132 at almost six runs an over, but Steve Harmison, raw promise filtering through after an expensive start, claimed his first two wickets in the championship before tea.
Day 2: Collapse brings record retort from Boon
By Scyld Berry at Edgbaston
BRIAN Lara's first day in the field as Warwickshire's captain was a doddle at first. He stood at slip to watch an exhibition of English county batting at its worst as Durham fell to 45 for five wickets on a slow, seamers' pitch.
Durham, if not the reputation of English cricket, were then rescued by a familiar figure. David Boon knows a cold day when he sees one, as a son of Tasmania who has often played his cricket in Hobart beneath the snow-capped peak of Mount Wellington, and in partnership with Paul Collingwood in a new record sixth-wicket stand for Durham, he made Lara continue to watch, and watch.
Boon's batting, perfect risk-free accumulation as it was, was made to seem a mini-masterpiece by what preceded it. There was no normal prelude to his arias, but a cacophonous clatter as Durham's top order disintegrated in a whirl of quirky, bottom-handed unorthodoxy.
It was not as if Warwickshire's bowling was above the ordinary. Dougie Brown, who was straight and found the help he needs in a pitch, was the only formidable foe. Ed Giddins had trouble settling into his new environment, spraying first down leg-side then down off, and the back-up seam attack could have done with Tim Munton or even Gladstone Small to complete the early rout.
Brown took his first three wickets in as many overs, with the aid of a brave parry by second slip to third, a misjudgment in shouldering arms by Nick Speak and a top-edged pull by Martin Speight. The owner of the walrus moustache looked on impassively: easy culling must be an all-too familiar sight.
The only indulgence Boon allowed himself was a twitchy tweak of his front left pad before each ball. The only indulgence Boon ever allows himself at the crease is a twitch of his front pad before every ball. If he had stayed on at No 3 in the Australian order, they might not have won so many matches, as Greg Blewett is a quicker scorer, but they would not have lost so many.
Collingwood, 22, was in the ideal place to see how it should be done. Boon not only stopped the good balls, he dropped them dead in front of him in accordance with Len Hutton's dictum: ``make them go and pick it up''. No playing half-forward, no half-checked drives, just attack or defence. When Boon square-cut, the shot was rounded off with a double-fisted karate-chop.
Durham's previous record stand for the sixth wicket was 152 between Ian Botham and Anderson Cummins. Before tea Boon and Collingwood had surpassed it, by when the junior partner was playing some fine attacking shots of his own, notably some pulls and cover drives, without of course having the grooved and rounded defence of his senior.
You might have thought that Lara would have had Nick Knight bowling lobs before lunch or the wicketkeeper trying some leg-breaks to break the Boon-Collingwood stand, but there was nothing unconventional about his bowling changes or field-settings. Nothing unconventional about his behaviour either during the warm-up practice, when he went through the drills like all his team-mates, though the odd Durham player chose a balaclava and Lara earlier this week was representing Trinidad in Port-of-Spain.
For the moment, at any rate, Lara in his new high office looks both relaxed and motivated: when Martin Speight top-edged, Lara beat wicketkeeper Tony Frost to short fine leg to catch the skier. It should remain thus, too, so long as Warwickshire keep winning: it is when they cease to do so that the golf course may beckon.
Having the ghost of Allan Donald around as the last overseas player could also prove a motivation for Brian Charles Lara. At Edgbaston the BC years always seem to follow the AD years in some defiance of the normal order; but for the moment Donald is due to return in 1999 and Lara's season as a county captain to be a one-off.
Boon went to his hundred on the back of some more generous off-side width from Giddins after tea and four overthrows when he and Collingwood had the second of their run-out panics. The pitch was close to the Pershore Road side of the ground, but 17 fours in a century on a slow early-season outfield testified to the certainty of Boon's attack.
If it remained rugby weather all day, in spite of some wan sunshine, that was not entirely inappropriate as Warwickshire are seeking to buy out Moseley. The new rugby club would then play at Edgbaston as Warwickshire seek to maximise use of their ground, which will also have permanent floodlights soon - or at any rate in time for the World Cup fixtures to be staged here next year - subject to council permission.
If rugby does move to Edgbaston, the pitch would take up almost all of the cricket square. Warwickshire, therefore, have consulted with the Melbourne Cricket Club, who have a similar problem when Australian Rules is played across the MCG square. Clay-based cricket pitches turn very muddy in winter under the impact of rain and boots.
Warwickshire would grow their cricket pitches in concrete containers in their practice area and lower them into the Edgabston square at the start of the cricket season, or so they progressively plan.
Day 3: Smith again savages Durham
By Mike Beddow at Edgbaston
Third day of four: Durham (305) need 219 to beat Warwickshire (336 & 187)
NEIL Smith, from his hideaway at No 7 in the Warwickshire order, continued the remarkable expansion of his batting potential when falling only 10 runs short of a second century in the match.
Up to last September, when he scored 148 against Gloucestershire, he had made only one first-class hundred in 10 years, but here he was on the brink of a third in five championship innings until playing on to Paul Collingwood.
A surprise win for Durham, which is now a real possibility, would have been more adjacent but for a second example of Smith's bludgeoning offside strokes. His 111-ball century on Friday came on the earliest recorded date, April 17, in championship history and his follow-up performance amounted to 90.
Neither side have made a decent start so far. A wicket has fallen in the first over of each innings and, in succession, the scoreboard revealed a multitude of problems: 41 for three, 41 for four and 46 for five. As Brian Lara was among the casualties for a second time -caught on the leg side by Martin Speight for 13 - all the signs pointed to a pitch with a touch of menace for the new ball.
Yet, as each innings developed, there were three individual centuries and two sixth-wicket stands in excess of 100. The outcome is a well balanced contest in which Durham, the bookmakers' 500-1 no hopers for the championship, have stood head to head with the 5-1 favourites.
This was despite the loss of their last three first innings wickets for only 13 runs. Two more went to Ed Giddins for figures of six for 89. A satisfactory return for any debutant with a new county and more so for a bowler with a career to rebuild.
As one might have expected, his control improved the more he bowled and he had plenty of work with 31 of the 96 completed overs. Everything was in good order when Collingwood, the overnight century maker, was lbw to a yorker-length ball.
Warwickshire's top order again folded all too quickly. Dominic Ostler's promotion to open became a traumatic experience: five balls in two innings for no runs when he played inside a straight delivery from Melvyn Betts.
For the second time, Lara was at the crease in the first over and though he lasted 40 minutes longer this time, he was again dismissed by John Wood. Class may be permanent but it can be temporarily damaged in sudden transit from the Caribbean to a chilly Birmingham.
Durham's elation was sustained despite Betts's departure with a hamstring injury. Wood bowled a long spell, squaring up Trevor Penney for a slip catch, and the teenager, Steve Harmison, bowled the left-handers, Nick Knight and David Hemp. Two interruptions for rain then helped rest the seamers and the wickets continued to fall around Smith in a late final session.
Day 4: Durham unable to capitalise
By Mike Beddow at Edgbaston
Durham (305 & 90-5) drew with Warwickshire (336 & 187)
A COMBINATION of rain and unproductive batting - with the notable exception of Nick Speak - conspired to quell a further uprising by the ``gang of three'' who propped up last season's championship table.
Sussex and Derbyshire won matches played across the weekend, but Durham were unable to complete the long-odds treble when needing 219 runs to beat Warwickshire.
Eight overs were lost at the start of the day and 52.5 were still to be bowled when the weather dampened the last glow of optimism, in the shape of Speak's undefeated 50 from 73 balls in one of his best innings for the county.
The match pattern was followed with wickets for the new ball, and when Mike Roseberry was lbw his two runs represented the total from the bat in four opening partnerships.
John Morris, tempted into hooking, and Jonathan Lewis, fending on the leg side, found different ways of misdirecting deliveries from Dougie Brown to first slip.
David Boon's dismissal will not be one for reminiscence in Tasmania next winter. He left a ball which removed offstump and the bowler was the Anglo-Australian, Michael Edmond.
Brown's dismissal of Martin Speight then gave him an equal share of 14 wickets in the match with Ed Giddins.