WHEN Durham embark on their 25th season in first-class cricket they will still be trying to find a way to develop a top-class spinner.

Seamers have rolled off the Riverside production line, but England's increasing dilemma in producing spinners is highlighted at Durham.

Among those they have nurtured from a young age, Scott Borthwick is the most successful, helping him to earn one Test cap. But in the last three years he has increasingly become a batsman who bowls only in favourable conditions.

Such conditions rarely prevail in England, least of all at Chester-le-Street, where there have been only five five-wicket hauls by Durham spinners in the championship.

Durham's only signing this winter has been Huddersfield-born Gurman Randhawa, who will be 24 next month and should be well down the road of learning his craft of left-arm spin.

At the start of the season it will be five years since his one first-class match for Yorkshire, against Durham University. Last season he played for Shropshire prior to his trial with Durham seconds.

Durham had not made a signing from another county since their last left-arm spinner, Ian Blackwell, arrived from Somerset in 2009.

He is their most successful spinner to date, having both the highest tally of wickets and the only average below 30, with 149 at 25.89.

He also has the best analysis by a Durham spinner, taking seven for 85 on an Old Trafford dustbowl designed to help Lancashire spin Durham to defeat in 2009.

The ploy failed, but it was successful on the only other occasion when a Durham spinner has taken seven in an innings, at Lord's in their first season, 1992.

The pitch was set up for John Emburey and Phil Tufnell, who bagged 17 wickets between them in a 175-run win. With David Graveney injured, Saltburn-born off-spinner Phil Berry, released after five years with Yorkshire, took seven for 113 then bagged the only three wickets to fall before Middlesex declared in their second innings.

Having taken ten in that match, he managed only a further 22 in 19 first-class appearances in his two seasons with Durham, suggesting that the club grounds they used then were not conducive to spin either. In fact, he rarely played at home.

For their second season in first-class cricket Durham signed two young spinners in 17-year-old Jason Searle, from Wiltshire, and left-arm Londoner David Cox, who had spent three years on the Lord's groundstaff.

Searle was considered highly promising, but although they persevered with him for several years he made only four first-class appearances.

Cox fared better and after a chastening debut in 1994, taking none for 163 at Edgbaston as Brian Lara plundered 501 not out, he had match figures of ten for 236 at the same venue two years later.

He also topped the batting averages that season, but grew frustrated when his chances were limited by the signing of James Boiling from Surrey.

While Cox boasts one of only three ten-wicket match hauls by Durham spinners, Boiling's 57 first-class wickets for the county came at an average of 56.29.

Graeme Bridge, from Sunderland, was the next left-arm spinner to be tried. His lack of height was a handicap, but he did quite well in taking 89 wickets at 35.29.

He always had to compete with ex-Sussex off-spinner Nicky Phillips and finally had to bow to the greater experience of Gareth Breese.

The West Indian became the third ten-wicket man when he took five in each innings at Scarborough in 2004, his first season. But by 2007 he too had made way, for the former New Zealand Test off-spinner Paul Wiseman.

Wiseman helped Durham to their first county championship title in 2008 but then departed, prompting the arrival of Blackwell.

Meanwhile attempts to develop young spinners continued to bear little fruit. There were high hopes of Glasgow-born leggie Moneeb Iqbal, who joined the academy in 2003 and was around for six years before being released.

Since then, only Borthwick and now Ryan Pringle have come through, although Ryan Buckley enjoyed a dream debut in 2013 on an Oval pitch designed to suit the more experienced Gareth Batty and Gary Keedy.

Just turned 19, Buckley took five for 86 in Surrey's first innings and Borthwick picked up his career-best figures of six for 70 in the second as they out-bowled the Surrey pair.

But Buckley was unable to kick on and it was a familiar tale of dashed hopes when he was released before the end of last season.

So Randhawa will pick up the baton in 2016 and will need to show he can bat as well as spin if he is to provide competition for the improving Pringle.

Durham's leading spinners (first-class matches):

Ian Blackwell 149 wickets at 25.89

Scott Borthwick 148 wickets at 33.76

Nicky Phillips 135 wickets at 40.22

Gareth Breese 105 wickets at 41.22

David Graveney 97 wickets at 38.70

Durham spinners who have taken five-wicket hauls in championship cricket at Riverside:

Michael Gough 5-66 v Middlesex 2001

Graeme Bridge 6-84 v Hampshire 2001

Gareth Breese 5-91 v Leicestershire 2005 Paul Wiseman 5-65 v Hampshire 2007 Ian Blackwell 5-7 v Somerset 2009