AT 4.30 yesterday Martin Saggers officially ended Durham's title hopes in his role as the TV umpire at the Rose Bowl.

The same man who was last out when they clinched their first championship at Canterbury in 2008 had the task of confirming Warwickshire's third bowling point courtesy of a run out.

It meant Durham could not overtake them and Phil Mustard's men look likely to have to settle for third place with Lancashire closing in on victory at Taunton. After their valiant effort in achieving maximum batting points even a draw would keep the Red Rose men above Durham.

Saggers, who was plucked from obscurity in Norfolk to launch his career with Durham before moving to Kent, is on the reserve list of first-class umpires.

He was called on shortly after Hampshire launched a belated attempt to go for maximum batting points. Had they achieved that and gone on to win Worcestershire would have been relegated.

But there was more chance of Easington returning a Tory MP and Hampshire merely helped Warwickshire to enforce the follow-on.

Hampshire will finish bottom and it will be interesting to see if they summon the resolve to make the visitors graft for victory today, maintaining final day interest as to whether Warwickshire or Lancashire take the title.

Durham should bow out with their eighth win of the season with Worcestershire resuming on the final day on 65 for two, still 299 behind.

Graham Onions took the two wickets after his wayward start had allowed the visitors to race to 50 in the seventh over.

Onions now has 50 for the season, a tremendous effort following the back surgery which forced him to miss the whole of last season.

Worcestershire captain Daryl Mitchell had made 35 off only 24 balls when Onions skidded one through to bowl him and he then had first innings century-maker Vikram Solanki caught behind for a duck.

Dale Benkenstein's 13th championship 50 of the season was among four half-centuries in Durham's second innings total of 388, Mark Stoneman top scoring with 75.

Although they were looking for quick runs, Durham would be disappointed that their last six wickets went down for 50 runs, 27 of which were bludgeoned by Mitch Claydon.

The persevering Alan Richardson had the same figures as in the first innings, three for 46, to finish with 73 wickets for the season, while Gareth Andrew reached 50 when he pinned Benkenstein lbw for 63.

Benkenstein finished with 1,353 runs at an average of 61.5, but no-one else reached 1,000. Will Smith fell 22 short when he departed for 37.

With two of their seamers struggling through injury, Worcestershire had to rely on the gentle off spin of Moeen Ali to keep an end going in the afternoon.

He looked fortunate to take the wicket of Stoneman, whose attractive innings ended when he thrust his pad forward down the line of leg stump and was adjudged lbw.

That was the only wicket to fall in the session as Ian Blackwell joined Benkenstein in passing 50, helping himself to some fairly easy runs off Ali.

Although Richardson's first 12 overs of the innings cost only six runs, Durham sped merrily along in the morning but lost three wickets.

Smith went first when a ball from Andrew nipped back to pin him lbw, then Michael Di Venuto departed for 55 when he bottom-edged an attempted pull off Richard Jones into his stumps.

Paul Collingwood got off the mark with a six over mid-wicket off Ali, but after making 24 a miscued pull off Kemar Roach saw him lob a catch to square leg.

Stoneman was on 46 at lunch and cut Richardson for his eighth four to reach 50 off 80 balls.

Following his exit, Benkenstein and Blackwell put on 96 with little trouble before departing in successive overs from Andrew.

Extra bounce accounted for Blackwell, who lobbed a catch to gully, then the same bowler pierced Scott Borthwick's defence with a swinging yorker.

Richardson did the rest and after his miserly bowling it was a shock to see Onions being put to the sword. But it couldn't last and Durham are favourites to win an absorbing match today.

SCORECARD

Durham v Worcestershire
At Emirates Durham ICG.
Overnight: Worcestershire 288 (V S Solanki
124, J G Cameron 74; C DThorp 4-52).
Durham 264 (W R Smith 66) and 51-0.

Durham Second Innings
W R Smith lbw b Andrew 37
M J Di Venuto b R A Jones 55
M D Stoneman lbw b M M Ali 75
P D Collingwood c Sub b Roach 24
D M Benkenstein lbw b Andrew 63
I D Blackwell c Mitchell b Andrew 59
P Mustard c Mitchell b Richardson 2
S G Borthwick b Andrew 2
C D Thorp lbw b Richardson 7
M E Claydon not out 27
G Onions b Richardson 4
Extras (b15 lb11 w1 nb6 pens 0) 33
Total (96.1 overs) 388
Fall: 1-82 2-134 3-172 4-242 5-338 6-
339 7-345 8-345 9-380
Bonus Pts: Durham 5 Worcestershire 5
Bowling: Roach 19-4-109-1. Richardson
28.1-12-46-3. Andrew 15-4-72-4. R A
Jones 9-1-51-1. M M Ali 25-1-84-1.

Worcestershire Second Innings Close
D K Mitchell b Onions 35
J G Cameron not out 17
V S Solanki c Mustard b Onions 0
M M Ali not out 10
Extras (lb1 nb2 pens 0) 3
Total 2 wkts (15 overs) 65
Fall: 1-50 2-50
To Bat: A N Kervezee, M G Pardoe, G M Andrew,
B J M Scott, R A Jones, K A J Roach,
A Richardson
Bonus Pts: Durham 5 Worcestershire 5
Bowling: Onions 7-1-32-2. Thorp 2-1-16-
0. Claydon 3-1-12-0. Blackwell 2-1-4-0.
Borthwick 1-1-0-0.