ON A wicketless morning the frustrations piled up for Durham as Middlesex continued to build patiently, reaching 189 for one at lunch, only 15 behind.

Following yesterday evening's two dropped edges, skipper Paul Collingwood missed a regulation chance at first slip off Chris Rushworth with Nick Compton on 15.

Compton never looked in form, but somehow scratched his way to 53 at lunch with Nick Gubbins on 87.

Durham didn't bowl badly, but the left-handed Gubbins continued to look very solid, other than when he edged a drive at Paul Coughlin through the vacant third slip area.

Compton also edged a four in the same over, giving some impetus to a scoring rate of below three an over. Middlesex added 89 in 34 overs in the session.

After his five-over burst cost nine runs Rushworth had overall figures of 15-4-26-0.

Compton had another close shave on 42 when he missed an attempted pull off a Scott Borthwick flipper, which just missed his off stump.

Borthwick was tried at both ends, and ten minutes before lunch Durham turned to Adam Hickey's off spin. Compton ran him to third man for the two runs which took him to 50 off 129 balls.