DURHAM are approaching the point where they may have to consider a replacement for Martin Love, whose little finger on his right hand is still a mess.

A month after suffering a nasty break when trying to take a slip catch against Worcestershire, Love has had the pins removed from the finger but is still having trouble with it.

Durham would be allowed a replacement if they wrote off Love for the rest of the season, but a complication is raised by the fact that the world's top players will be involved in the ICC Trophy in Sri Lanka, starting on September 12.

Having just completed their tour, the Sri Lankans would be an obvious source of replacement overseas men, and Aravinda da Silva has expressed an interest in playing county cricket again.

But anybody involved in the ICC Trophy, including Paul Collingwood, would have to miss Durham's last two championship games against Essex at the Riverside and Gloucestershire at Bristol.

Durham would be more likely to turn to another player of Love's ilk - an up-and-coming Queenslander perhaps.

THE television gantries have remained in place at the Riverside since England's one-day international against India, ready to feature the women's game this week.

On Friday the same two countries' gentler sexes meet in the last game of a triangular series also involving New Zealand, prior to the final at the Riverside the following day.

There are also two games at the Durham University ground on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The ECB Cricket Roadshow will be on site, which features a virtual reality game, speed reaction test, BBC Radio commentary box, and PlayStation 2 pods.

The games start at 11am. Tickets cost £5, which also includes admission to Durham's next match, the Norwich Union League game against Leicestershire next Sunday.

DURHAM'S head groundsman, David Measor, travelled down from Chester-le-Street to take the obligatory core sample from the Feethams pitch a couple of hours before the match against Derbyshire started on Wednesday.

Shortly after he left, pitch liaison officer Phil Sharpe arrived and insisted on seeing the sample, so upon arrival back at the Riverside Measor had to turn straight round and travel back to Darlington.

He was there only a matter of seconds, which was all Sharpe needed to declare the sample perfectly acceptable.

GRANTED another unscheduled Saturday off, I took a busman's and went to Scarborough, a pleasure of which I have been sadly deprived since the demise of those epic festival clashes between Yorkshire and Durham for the Northern Electric Trophy.

When Durham played a championship match there five years ago it was all over in two days because so much grass had been left on the pitch, infuriating David Boon.

When something similar was tried against Surrey two years ago Yorkshire had points deducted, so now it's back to the sort of bland strip on which the inevitable draw was concluded on Saturday.

Yorkshire might have lost, however, had Richard Dawson not been dropped off the first ball of the day. Had Matthew Wood held the catch at square leg it would have created a unique hat-trick for me, having witnessed a Durham player adjudged lbw to the first ball on both Thursday and Friday at Feethams.

The good news from the seaside is that if - as seems likely - Yorkshire are relegated, Scarborough would be keen to stage next season's resumption of championship hostilities with Durham.

Read more about Durham here.