RYAN Pringle rode to the rescue for Durham in only his second championship match, reaching an unbeaten on 63 out of a total of 201.

The 22-year-old all-rounder from Sunderland shared stands of 43 with Gareth Breese, 33 with Mark Wood and 34 with Chris Rushworth.

Most of the nine fours in the powerfully-built Pringle’s 84-ball 50 were firmly struck and the on-drive off Rikki Clarke which took him to 48 was a high-class stroke.

There were also drives through the off-side and firm clips to leg as the Hetton Lyons product underlined his claim for a regular place next season.

On a pleasant afternoon, batting became easier as the ball grew older, but not before Keith Barker completed yet another five-wicket haul against Durham.

Michael Richardson added only six runs after lunch before departing for 42 when he played back and edged the left-arm bowler to the wicketkeeper.

That brought in Pringle with the score on 78 for six and Barker had five for 30 in ten overs at the time.

He rested after a further four overs and it was the steep bounce of the 6ft 8in Boyd Rankin which finally accounted for Breese. He had made 26 off 102 balls when he fended to Tim Ambrose, who parried the ball to Clarke at second slip.

Wood struck the ball confidently to make 16 off 13 balls before he shuffled into the first ball of a new spell by Clarke and was lbw.

Rushworth made 14 before wafting a return catch to Jeetan Patel and last man Varun Aaron was yorked by Rankin for two.