JULY came in like a lion for Durham and didn’t so much go out like a lamb as very quickly turn into a limp lettuce leaf. At the height of summer in this crazy season they have played hardly any cricket, yet from August 3 they have to cram in 33 days’ play before the season ends on September 16.

The championship table suggests they are in danger of relegation, yet they have played three games fewer than Essex and with seven matches left could yet win the title.

July 1 was the final day of the home championship match against Warwickshire, when it was all over inside an hour as Steve Harmison took seven for 29.

Durham could hardly be blamed for the failure to sustain that momentum as the ludicrous scheduling restricted them to four Twenty20 matches in the next 15 days, the last of which was washed out at Leicester.

The home championship match against Lancashire was then reduced to two days by the weather, leaving only the CB 40 games against Nottinghamshire and Scotland.

The hectic six weeks ahead begins with a trip to Basingstoke, where Durham will be hoping it’s third time lucky following two disappointing visits to May’s Bounty.

The first, in 2000, was billed as the ground’s first-class swansong as the Rose Bowl was coming on stream the following year and Hampshire announced they would play no more outground cricket.

They stood by that decision until 2008, when they held an REM concert at their headquarters and switched Durham’s visit to Basingstoke. It was subsequently decided to revert to the old tradition of May’s Bounty staging one game a season and yet again this year Durham have the honour of providing the opposition.

They will be wary of the pitch. In 2000 it started to break up in mid-afternoon on the first day, consigning Durham to an innings defeat after losing the toss. In 2008 they arrived after a spell of very wet weather, and although the pitch was soft they gambled on batting first, believing the surface would not get any better.

In fact it did improve as it dried, and Hampshire scored the highest total of the match in the fourth innings to win by two wickets.

That didn’t stop Durham going on to win their first LV County Championship title, however, and if either of their Basingstoke defeats still rankles it is more likely to be the debacle of 2000.

David Boon’s third and final season of captaincy in 1999 had seen Durham earn a place in the inaugural division one, for which Nick Speak was put in charge.

After a flying start with a home win against champions Surrey, things were slowly unravelling and another defeat was inevitable once Speak lost the toss at Basingstoke.

Hampshire raced to 171 for two before the pitch began to misbehave, and although no one reached 50 the home side totalled 340 with the help of 36 extras. Durham had packed their side with bowlers and had off-spinner Nicky Phillips batting at seven. By most people’s reckoning that would have been at least three places too high.

They were all out for 83 and 93, with Shane Warne taking four wickets in each innings, and the match was all over before lunch on the third day. It was noted that several balls from Alan Mullally brought up huge clouds of dust and a pitch panel was convened.

After waiting several hours for the verdict, Speak was furious when it was announced there would be no points deduction.

At least can take heart from the fact that Yorkshire totalled 524 at Basingstoke last season after Adil Rashid (117) and Ajmal Shahzad (78) put on 192 for the eighth wicket.

FORMER Durham bowler Mark Turner is not exactly dancing with joy as he waits to find out whether he will be fit to represent Somerset in the Friends Provident t20 Finals Day at the Rose Bowl on August 14.

The 25-year-old seamer twisted an ankle in bizarre fashion while fielding in the quarter-final victory over Northants at Taunton.

In trying to take a boundary catch, he caught his heel on a small stage on which dancers were performing during the cricket. The awkward landing turned his left ankle and Turner left the ground on crutches.

"It was a pretty unlucky way to get injured,” he said. “I have really been enjoying the Twenty20 experience, having been out of the first team in other competitions, so I would be very disappointed to miss out at the Rose Bowl."

Turner claimed the key wicket of David Sales in bowling two overs for eight runs against Northants, taking his tally of t20 victims for the season to 14.

THE fact that Ben Stokes is a powerful lad might have something to do with his diet. During his first year in the Durham Academy he was said to be struggling financially, despite being paid £50 a week subsistence money.

He wasn’t gambling or drinking, nor did he have a girl friend with expensive tastes, so why was he struggling to make ends meet?

When asked about his diet he replied that he ate what he knew how to cook. And in transpired that the only thing he knew how to cook was steak.