ON the odd occasion when the rain has relented, county cricket matches have moved on apace this season and Graham Onions was again a prime mover at Edgbaston yesterday.

But he couldn't shift Ian Bell, who was bound to rediscover his form sometime and led Warwickshire's recovery from 14 for four to reach 116 for five in reply to 163.

Bell remained unbeaten on 59 after surviving an edge low to Michael Di Venuto's left at slip off Scott Borthwick's final ball of the day.

The fact that Onions comfortably made Durham's top score of 36 suggested the rest had under-achieved.

But facing the new ball has been difficult for all batsmen this season and Onions quickly took two wickets to have Warwickshire rocking on five for three.

It became 14 for four when Mitch Claydon struck in his first over, but he is beginning to make a habit of doing that then not following up.

When Onions rested with two for 23 from eight overs, Bell began to prosper. Durham have probably done England a favour by allowing him to play himself back into form against an attack which had Paul Collingwood as the fourth seamer.

Bell greeted the introduction of his former England team-mate by hitting two fours in his first over and Durham were clearly paying for declining to change their team, despite Ben Stokes being unable to bowl.

They are persisting with two spinners, but they are not going to get much bowling in current conditions, with more rain forecast for today.

With Onions out of the firing line, Bell and Darren Maddy looked more comfortable against Claydon and Callum Thorp, then Collingwood's first two overs cost 14 runs.

Bell edged him just over the slips on 40, but it was a rare blemish by the batsman, who had completed his half-century by the time Onions returned.

By that stage Durham had lost their grip. They had Ian Blackwell on at the other end and Maddy lofted him over long-on for six on his way to 35.

Durham had to bring back Onions to break the stand of 85 and after beating both batsmen he had Maddy caught at second slip by Di Venuto.

Despite the fall of 14 wickets in the first 62 overs, the pitch was as good as could be expected given the recent weather and several Durham batsmen were the architects of their downfall.

After winning 16 of the previous 18 championship tosses, Durham lost this one and would not be surprised to be inserted in morning murk.

Their early struggles were understandable, but their abject collapse after lunch was not.

With the sun shining at that point, they lost three wickets in an over to the left-arm swing of former Blackburn Rovers trainee Keith Barker and in his next over Thorp pulled a long hop straight to mid-wicket.

Having earlier pinned Collingwood lbw for four with a big in-swinger, Barker had taken four for one in 14 balls and should have had another shortly afterwards, when Blackwell was dropped at gully.

Durham were 103 for eight but Onions had few problems in dominating a stand of 49 with Blackwell, who departed for 19 when he inside-edged a forcing shot into his stumps.

The only early batsmen who looked at all comfortable were Di Venuto, who made 29, and Stokes.

Stokes played with sensible caution after going in at 17 for two and made 35 in taking the score to 99 for four before driving wide of off stump at Barker and edging to wicketkeeper Tim Ambrose.

Two balls later Phil Mustard drove even more lavishly and edged to second slip and Scott Borthwick lasted three balls before his defensive push resulted in an edge to third slip, where Bell took a brilliant catch low to his right.

The morning's one bright spot came when Di Venuto reached 25,000 first-class runs with his score on 15.

Will Smith never settled against the swinging ball and made two before edging Chris Wright to the wicketkeeper.

Collingwood was equally uncomfortable and three of his four runs came from a slice just out of gully's reach.

Stokes and Di Venuto put on 33 before the latter was lbw when well forward in the first over of Wright's second spell.

Dale Benkenstein cracked two successive balls from Rikki Clarke to the cover boundary off the back foot but fell lbw for 11 to spinner Jeetan Patel's third ball just before lunch.

Benkenstein has for so long been Durham's rock and with him gone the house fell down, stemmed only by the efforts of Onions.