DURHAM go into the lion's den at Bristol today, hoping to halt Gloucestershire's phenomenal run of one-day success.

Although any away tie in the Benson & Hedges Cup quarter-finals would have been tough, this was the draw Durham particularly didn't want.

Gloucestershire have won both the B & H Cup and the NatWest Trophy in the last two years, and last season they also topped the National League division one.

Their success has coincided with the arrival of 40-year-old Kim Barnett from Derbyshire, although it probably has more to do with coach John Bracewell identifying the one-day game as their best chance of winning trophies.

They have no huge stars, but they have a winning strategy, which involves tight bowling, sharp fielding, quick running and playing for each other.

In Australian Ian Harvey and skipper Mark Alleyne they have two excellent one-day all-rounders, and they normally have Jack Russell to pressurise the batsmen by standing up to the seamers.

Russell is still out through injury and Harvey also missed Sunday's Norwich Union League game at home to Yorkshire, but they were still good enough to win by five wickets.

Harvey is in the squad for today and Gloucestershire have also added Dominic Hewson, who made 89 on Saturday to stave off what looked certain defeat in the championship match against Hampshire.

With more than 3,000 runs to his name in this competition, Barnett is second only to Graham Gooch, who will be at Bristol today to pass on a few tips to Durham.

They will give a fitness test to Neil Killeen, who suffered a recurrence on Sunday of the ankle injury which kept him out of the final group game against Yorkshire plus the championship match at Edgbaston.

Stephen Harmison travelled with the squad yesterday, as did Martin Speight, but Durham would like to field the team which beat Middlesex on Sunday.

Martin Love has offered to open, but skipper Jon Lewis wants to keep the middle order as it is and has no fears about opening with Michael Gough and Nicky Peng again.

This is the third time in four years Durham have reached the quarter-finals, but failure to win their group has always meant they have had an away tie and they lost to Yorkshire in 1998 and Lancashire last season.

Durham (from): J J B Lewis (capt), M A Gough, N Peng, M L Love, P D Collingwood, D R Law, I D Hunter, A Pratt, N Killeen, N C Phillips, J E Brinkley, S J Harmison, M P Speight

Gloucestershire (from): M W Alleyne (capt), T H C Hanock, K J Barnett, C G Taylor, M G N Windows, R J Cunliffe, I J Harvey, D M Hewson, J N Snape, M C J Ball, R C J Williams, J M Averis, J Lewis.