DURHAM are investigating the possibility of signing Keaton Jennings, the former South Africa Under 19s captain who scored 207 not out for the second team last week.

A left-hand batsman and right arm seamer, he is in his second season with Durham and made his double hundred a month ahead of 20th birthday in a big win against Yorkshire seconds at York.

The son of former South Africa coach Ray Jennings, his mother is from Sunderland, which should help him to qualify to play for Durham’s first team.

But the ECB have tightened the registration rules and he will have to spend a minimum number of days in England.

He is reported to be keen to have a first-class career with Durham and, if necessary, will return in mid-winter after playing half a season for Gauteng. He made his first-class debut for them last December and batted in the top three for six matches.

His father was a wicketkeeper-batsman whose career almost entirely spanned South Africa's years of isolation. He was South Africa's No. 1 for more than a decade, but limited to 14 appearances for his country against rebel touring sides.

When South Africa returned to the fold he was 38 and the selectors opted to pick Dave Richardson, father of Durham’s reserve wicketkeeper Michael Richardson.

Ray Jennings is reported to be a fitness fanatic and disciplinarian. He started coaching at Gauteng and was appointed as South Africa's coach in 2004.

DURHAM are looking for the next Steve Harmison or Graham Onions or Melvyn Betts and will be visiting their clubs with the Speedstar Challenge.

It is being organised by former Durham seamer Neil Killeen, whose club, Annfield Plain, is also on the list of venues.

He has been joined there this season by his old pal Betts and reports that Melvyn was bowling quite quickly until they collided while running between the wickets and the ex-England A paceman dislocated a shoulder.

The Speedstar Challenge, sponsored by Sanctus Energy Procurement Analysis, starts at Gateshead Fell next Thursday and will run throughout June before culminating in a final at the Emirates Durham ICG before the final Friends Life t20 group game against Lancashire on July 8.

Any budding pacemen in the four age categories (under 15, 17, 19, 23) are invited to find out how fast they can bowl under the speed camera. The quickest bowlers will be entered into the finals day, when the winners will be awarded a trophy and Durham membership for 2013. They will also be offered the opportunity to train alongside Durham's Academy throughout the winter.

Venues: Gateshead Fell (June 7, 5pm), Ashington (June 9, 9am), Sunderland (June 14, 5pm), Annfield Plain (June 16, 9am), Brandon (June 23, 9am), Middlesbrough (June 30, 9am).

THE ECB evidently do not run an early retirement policy. The pitch inspector for Durham’s match at Taunton, where the task is irrelevant, was 76-year-old Welshman Peter Walker, while Jack Birkenshaw was wearing two hats, or rather two suits, at Chester-le-Street this week.

Aged 71, he donned jacket and tie in his role as pitch inspector and something more akin to a tracksuit in order to dish out some advice to Scott Borthwick.

Birkenshaw, an off-spinner capped five times by England, began his career with his native Yorkshire before moving on to Leicestershire, a team he also coached to the County Championship title in 1996 and 1998.

As well as coaching Borthwick during the winter, he helped Yorkshire’s Adil Rashid. Hopefully both will eventually reap the benefits.

THERE has evidently been a grasshopper warbler in the vicinity of the media centre this week. A caller to BBC Radio Newcastle commentator Martin Emmerson claimed to have picked up the unmistakable warbling via the microphone he dangles out of his window.

As it is a Red List species following dramatic decline we can expect an invasion of twitchers once this news gets out.