FIVE-WICKET hauls by spinners at Riverside are about as frequent as transits of Venus, and the rarity value yesterday was heightened by the fact that it came from Yorkshire's Richard Dawson.

He took five for 40 as Durham were bowled out for 150, 181 behind. But for the second successive home match the visitors declined to enforce the follow-on and Yorkshire reached 156 for four in their second innings.

After a good first day, the contest became increasingly one-sided yesterday and, as with Glamorgan, it will probably be a question of how deeply Yorkshire rub Durham's noses into the dust before declaring.

Yorkshire led by 121 on first innings here last season then Shoaib Akhtar turned the game around. But there was no hint of it happening again as Matthew Wood and Phil Jaques were untroubled in passing their first-innings stand of 79.

They put on 118 before Jaques pulled Gordon Muchall to long leg and Wood went on to 71 before falling lbw to Paul Collingwood eight balls before the close.

Nightwatchman Steve Kirby fell in identical fashion next ball and Collingwood will be on a hat-trick today, but the ball which removed Wood kept low, which can only add to Durham's worries as they are 337 behind.

Dawson is still only 23 and has plenty of time to resurrect a Test career which looked a distant memory when he took only 17 championship wickets last season at 49.41.

He has decided to put England out of his mind and concentrate on enjoying his cricket for Yorkshire, which he clearly did yesterday.

His figures were his best since he took six wickets against Glamorgan to clinch the title for Yorkshire at Scarborough in 2001.

Having been brought on for the final over on Tuesday, when he removed nightwatchman Neil Killeen with the fifth ball, he was left on for three overs on the resumption and looked dangerous.

There was more spin than usual on this well-shaved pitch, raising doubts about the wisdom of Durham leaving out Graeme Bridge.

Dawson returned with the score on 80 for four after 29 overs and Collingwood hit his first two balls for four through the covers off the back foot then drove to the cover boundary again later in the over.

Nicky Peng also drove a four in Dawson's next over, but then the off-spinner settled back into his previous groove and when Peng pushed too firmly at a straight one he didn't get to the pitch and the edge carried comfortably to slip.

Peng was furious as he had moved easily to 37 and dominated the only stand of note, putting on 63 with Collingwood.

This was a crucial innings for Collingwood if he is to stay in the reckoning for a Test place against the West Indies and he seemed to have set out his stall to bat for a long time.

Despite that flurry of three boundaries off Dawson, he had made only 24 off 73 balls at lunch and he added only two before falling to the last ball of the first over after the break.

Presumably hoping to prevent Dawson from settling back into his rhythm, he tried to hit him over the top and miscued to mid-on.

Dawson deceived Andrew Pratt in the flight to hit his leg stump, and polished off the innings by accepting a gentle return catch from Shoaib Akhtar two balls after the Pakistani had driven him for a huge straight six.

There was also some impressive bowling from Craig White, who hasn't bowled a lot since taking over the captaincy at a time when it seemed his England career was over because his injury problems were preventing him from bowling at the pace required by the selectors.

He bowled a superb over at Collingwood, having him dropped on 21 by Jaques at first slip then beating him with the next two balls.

White forced Breese to play on and his first ten overs cost only 17 runs. Then Gary Pratt hit him for three fours before following a ball which moved away from him. The edge was very well caught by wicketkeeper Simon Guy, diving to his left, making up for dropping Muchall off Kirby early in the day.

Muchall failed to take advantage, becoming the second victim of the morning for 19-year-old Nick Thornicroft, who bowled a good spell from the Lumley End before being switched to bowl down-breeze with less success.

Jon Lewis shouldered arms to an in-swinger and was bowled in Thornicroft's first over, then Muchall failed to connect with one drive before trying the same shot again and edging to first slip, where Jaques took an excellent catch.

At 38 for four it was going to be a long haul back for Durham, but Peng played with a comfort which made everyone else's struggles on the blameless pitch hard to explain.

The bowling was good, but not good enough to dismiss a side for 150 and for the second time in the match the Yorkshire openers quickly showed it was a surface on which runs could flow.

They were 54 for no wicket at tea, then Durham's hopes that Breese could match Dawson's success were quickly dented as Jaques kept sweeping him for four.

After Muchall made the breakthrough Mark Davies had Anthony McGrath caught behind, but Durham's misery was complete when Darren Lehmann was dropped on two by Peng at cover.