MARTIN Speight remains in the Durham squad for the championship match against Hampshire starting at the Riverside today. But the time is rapidly approaching when they must decide whether to part company.

He will be 34 in October and may decide to concentrate on his work as an artist as he is clearly not going to regain the wicketkeeping gloves from Andrew Pratt.

Speight played in last week's defeat by bottom club Derbyshire, but could stand down as Nicky Peng and Danny Law return. Steve Harmison will also come back in for Ian Hunter.

Speight's championship average this season is exactly the same as he has averaged throughout his five years with the club, 23.6.

He arrived from Sussex with a first-class average of 35.67, but had struggled in his final season there after a year out with a debilitating illness and has never recovered his old sparkle.

There were clear signs of it when he raced to 43 not out after 24 wickets had fallen in the day last Thursday. But he got out carelessly without addition the following morning, which was a big blow to Durham's victory chances.

In 123 matches for Sussex, Speight made 13 centuries, while in 69 for Durham he has a top score of 97 not out.

There are hopes that Phil Mustard can develop into a capable deputy for Pratt.

Nick Speak, who arrived from Lancashire at the same time as Speight and is a year older, will also have to decide whether he wishes to continue.

Current skipper Jon Lewis arrived that same year, 1997, and the imports forced Jimmy Daley into the background. He has been struggling to re-emerge ever since and with a top championship score of 38 in nine innings this season his future is also far from certain. Durham finished 17th in 1997, and in championship terms they are in danger of their lowest place since then as they are currently third from the bottom of the second division.

Having to field first with a depleted attack through a run of nine successive lost tosses has been at the root of their problems, although in the batting the gap between Martin Love, Paul Collingwood and the rest has been disappointing.

With three games left, Collingwood will be desperate to score the 196 runs he needs to complete his first chmapionship 1,000.