DURHAM swiftly wrapped up their eighth win of the season yesterday, beating Worcestershire by 151 runs, and were left to sweat on whether they would finish second or third in the LV County Championship.

The possibility arose of Lancashire losing at Taunton, when they were left to chase a target of 210 in a little over two hours.

Had Lancashire lost, Durham would have finished one point ahead of them, pocketing second place prizemoney of £225,000, of which £175,000 goes to the players. The figures for third place are £105,000 and £87,000.

Durham completed their victory 15 minutes after lunch, moving level on points with Warwickshire but knowing they would finish below them because the Bears already had nine wins.

But it had become so tight that it was impossible not to rue the forfeiture of their first innings in the rain-ruined home match against Hampshire.

Cook said: "That was a gamble we wanted to take to try and get the points for winning the match. History suggests the side doing the chasing in those situations rarely wins, but we felt we had to go for it."

Cook also felt that rain cost his side victory at home to Nottinghamshire, but added: "There are so many factors that you can't legislate for in cricket.

"For two thirds of the season we were the best team and played some excellent cricket. Then we had some bad weather and we lost a couple of players at crucial times and there were one or two performances which could have been better.

"We played our most forceful cricket when we had Ben Stokes in the team in the first half of the year. We didn't see a lot of him after his finger injury, but it was brilliant that he and Scott Borthwick got some England calls.

"Bringing players through to international standard is what you set your stall out to do.

"Phil Mustard is maturing all the time and Mark Stoneman has started to show what a talent he is. The team is going very much in the right direction and they have been a credit to themselves and to Durham."

The season ended yesterday for most of the players, although there are two more engagements for Borthwick and Stokes, who are in the England squad for two Twenty20 games against the West Indies at the Oval next weekend.

Borthwick is one of four spinners in the 14-man squad as England look ahead to next September's World Twenty20 Championship in Sri Lanka.

He and Ian Blackwell wrapped up the Worcestershire innings yesterday with three wickets each as the visitors, safe from relegation, went down fairly meekly after a good first hour.

After resuming on 65 for two, Moeen Ali and left-handed opener James Cameron added a further 63 runs before three wickets went down on 128.

Graham Onions was clearly riled by Cameron's resistance but after the paceman had done the softening up Mitch Claydon cashed in with two wickets in his second over.

Shortly after lofting Blackwell sweetly over long-on for six, Ali edged a drive to Michael Di Venuto at second slip and three balls later Alexei Kervezee edged to Mustard.

Then Blackwell turned one into Cameron to have him lbw on the back foot for 47.

Gareth Andrew clearly had no intention of hanging around and Blackwell bowled him through a reverse sweep for 15.

Matt Pardoe made 27 before edging Blackwell to slip then Borthwick found extra bounce to find Ben Scott's top edge as he shaped to turn to leg. A simple catch lobbed to backward square leg.

Kemar Roach wafted at the first ball after lunch and edged to slip and Borthwick claimed his third wicket when last man Alan Richardson drove to mid-on.

The season ended with Mustard winning a 100-metre sprint against paceman Ruel Brathwaite and doing a lap of honour. Whether it was the Colonel's final fling as captain remains to be seen.

SCORECARD

Durham v Worcestershire
At Emirates Durham ICG
Overnight: Durham 264 (W R Smith 66) and
388 (M D Stoneman 75, D MBenkenstein
63, I D Blackwell 59, M J Di Venuto 55; G
M Andrew 4-72).Worcestershire 288 (V S
Solanki 124, J G Cameron 74; C D Thorp
4-52) and 65-2.

Worcestershire Second Innings
J G Cameron lbw b Blackwell 47
M M Ali c Di Venuto b Claydon 38
A N Kervezee c Mustard b Claydon 0
M G Pardoe c Di Venuto b Blackwell 27
G M Andrew b Blackwell 15
B J Scott c Stoneman b Borthwick 15
R A Jones not out 23
K A Roach c Di Venuto b Borthwick 0
A Richardson c Thorp b Borthwick 5
Extras (b1 lb5 nb2 pens 0) 8
Total (48.4 overs) 213
Fall: 1-50 2-50 3-128 4-128 5-128 6-
154 7-179 8-185 9-185
Total Bonus Pts: Durham 5 Worcestershire 5
Bowling: Onions 13-2-51-2. Thorp 8-3-37-
0. Claydon 8-4-27-2. Blackwell 13-3-67-3.
Borthwick 6.4-1-25-3.
Durham (21pts) beat Worcestershire (5pts) by 151 runs