ENGLAND paceman Steve Harmison continued his fine-tuning for the Ashes series by claiming Durham's first hat-trick in first-class cricket.

All three batsmen were bowled as Durham completed a two-day win by seven wickets against Worcestershire at Chester-le-Street.

Harmison beat James Pipe for pace, shattered Matt Mason's stumps with a yorker and then hit David Wigley's leg-stump.

Harmison, who also took a hat-trick in a one-day international against India at Trent Bridge last September, then finished off the innings by bowling Alamgir Sheriyar to finish with five for 61.

"I got off to a bad start each spell," said the man who topped the world's bowling rankings last year.

"But I had my tail up at the end and felt confident with the hat-trick ball. I got it in the right place, and he helped it into the stumps.

"I'm looking forward to the Ashes. South Africa had done their homework and just kept leaving me, but there's no way the Aussies will do that."

With nine of the second day's scheduled overs remaining when Worcestershire were all out for 146, Durham needed 32 to begin a season with two championship wins for the first time.

At 25 for two they claimed the extra half-hour to complete the task for the loss of one more wicket.

Although 21 wickets fell on a day of glorious sunshine, the fact that Paul Collingwood scored 129 for Durham suggested there could be few complaints about the pitch.

Liam Plunkett had all of Worcestershire's top three lbw, while Harmison had to settle for having Ben Smith caught at first slip in his first spell.

Collingwood's century was his first in the championship since the final match of the 2001 season. He had been relatively untroubled in reaching 88 on the first day. Chaminda Vaas, Mason and Sheriyar all posed sufficient threat yesterday for Wigley to be kept out of the attack until the afternoon.

But he followed up last week's encouraging performance in the win against Derbyshire by polishing off Durham's innings with three for one in 17 balls.

Worcestershire's deficit was 115. But the situation was hopeless at 78 for six when Vaas went in and thrashed an unbeaten 42, his stand of 54 with Pipe ensuring Durham at least had to bat again.