A SUNNY afternoon at Lord's merely brought two more hours of toil for Durham as Middlesex advanced to 316 for one.

Having played himself into form in reaching a scratchy 53 at lunch, Nick Compton was much improved in moving on to 120. He and Nick Gubbins, who is on 141, have put on 239 and while neither gave a clear chance in the afternoon they had several close shaves.

After reaching his hundred off 232 balls, Gubbins had not added when the whole Durham team were convinced he edged Mark Wood behind.

Umpire Mike Burns was unconvinced, as he was when Graham Onions had yet another good lbw shout with Gubbins on 108.

The left-hander looked a little shaky against the second new ball, edging wide just out of gully's reach. And on 114 he edged Onions just short of first slip. Michael Richardson dived across in vain.

Scott Borthwick had a confident lbw appeal against Compton on 109 turned down by Alex Wharf.

With ten overs left for bonus points it looks as though the one batting point Durham picked up will be their sum total unless they can bat for a day and a half in their second innings.