Darren Gough will be at great pains not to be overshadowed by England rival Steve Harmison in Yorkshire's Championship clash with Durham which began at Riverside today.

England on Friday select their side for the first Test against South Africa and the 32-year-old Gough knows that a typically robust performance for Yorkshire over the next day or two may just convince England coach Duncan Fletcher that he is fit enough to be included.

The last thing Gough will want is for 24-year-old Harmison to upstage him and drop a hint to England that there are sufficient young fast bowlers around without having to risk recalling an undoubtably great player but one who has still not fully proven that his knee can stand up to the rigours of Test cricket.

England, for their part, may want to delay picking Gough until the second Test but it will be hard for them to keep him out at Edgbaston next week if he bags a lot of Durham wickets.

Gough, however, also faces the prospect at Riverside of having to play second fiddle to his eccentric team-mate Steve Kirby, whose dynamic form has brought him 19 wickets in the last two Championship matches.

Yorkshire pride took a sharp knock when Durham gained their first-ever Championship win against them in early June at Headingley but they can take comfort from knowing that they have a 100 per cent record in the five Championship matches they have so far played inside Durham.

They have also shed the poor form which affected them for a large part of the first half of the season and they went into the match with consecutive wins at Taunton and Derby on their backs.

These successes pushed them into the second promotion spot but they were without Championship action last week and as a consequence have slipped back into fifth place but they enjoy at least one game in hand over three of the four teams above them.

If they beat Durham it will set them up nicely for the visit to Scarborough next week of lowly Hampshire, who got away with a draw at the Rose Bowl when bad weather set in with Yorkshire in a commanding position.

Updated: 11:07 Tuesday, July 15, 2003