Beyond the boundary, the signs were clear. The fast-food stalls were either closed or doing no business, stewards were milling about looking for a crowd to shepherd and the bobbies were watching the cricket, so little chance was there of a public disturbance. Five thousand people (an official figure that seemed wildly optimistic) sat huddled against the cold, watching West Indies going through the motions. It felt like the Test match that no one wanted.

Chris Gayle had said as much in the build-up, comments that had almost affronted the England captain. The result was that both had set themselves up as defenders of markedly different faiths: Andrew Strauss the conservative, Gayle the radical. If their battle was in any way a personal one, then it was won by the West Indies captain, who dismissed his opposite number in the morning session, caught off the glove sweeping. But by the end of the day it was Strauss who was the more contented, his team going to their ice baths on 302 for two.

Ice baths on such a day would be like nipping into a sauna after a jog in the Sahara. It was a clear day but bitterly cold. The temperature barely nudged 12C (54F) and West Indies' young players must have looked at Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who will rejoin Durham once this tour is done, with an added sense of wonder. The Riverside is the most northerly of Test grounds - just 2,429 miles from the North Pole, if you please - and it would have been no surprise to have witnessed the heavy roller being pulled by a pack of huskies.

Needless to say it did not suit the touring team. It was too cold to swing and the pitch was deathly slow, offering nothing to the quicker bowlers except the odd ball that kept low and the merest hint of slow turn for the spinners. With the lush outfield negating any chance of reverse swing, it was difficult to think of less hospitable conditions for their spearhead, Fidel Edwards. He finished wicketless and but for a meaningless spurt at the end of the day against James Anderson, the nightwatchman, was insipid.

If it was a good day for England, who have the Wisden Trophy in their grasp, it was a good one, too, for Graham Gooch, who was watching from the press box. The men responsible for England's commanding position, Ravi Bopara and Alastair Cook, are Gooch acolytes, part products of his expertise and devotion to producing top-class batsmen for Essex and England. There is more of Gooch in Bopara's languid strokeplay than Cook, but the latter's ability to score runs when not quite at his technical best would please the old boy.

Cook strove hard to right some old failings. Recently his off-side play has been characterised by a lack of balance, a stiff front leg and a thrusting of his hands at the ball, making him vulnerable to a full length and limiting his scoring options. It was noticeable how he tried to get his front foot closer to the pitch of the ball and bend his front knee into the stroke. Accordingly, he unfurled some attractive off drives to go with his bread-and-butter clips through mid-wicket.

He is not, and one suspects never will be, a fluent stroke-maker, but his other attributes - mental strength, a desire to score heavily and an awareness of his limitations - more than make up for technical flaws. When he clubbed Sulieman Benn through mid-wicket for four 40 minutes after tea, he chalked up his ninth Test hundred, decent going for a 24-year-old. He was still there at the close, 126 not out, Gooch's maxim of “you've never got enough” no doubt ringing in his ears.

Bopara joined Cook in celebrating three figures in a rare passage of play that elevated the cricket above the level of humdrum. Hitting Benn over the top for four, six, four, he moved from 84 to 98 in three balls, before two calm singles brought up his third consecutive Test hundred. This was a feat all the more remarkable given they have come on the back of three consecutive noughts. He is, it might be said, a man of extremes - and a dangerous one if he gets off the mark.

He was dropped - on 51, by Denesh Ramdin, the wicketkeeper - as he had been during his previous hundreds. Every batsman gets dropped, of course, but had Bopara not been given various reprieves, we might be talking about him in the same vein as Ian Bell, someone who makes pretty if insignificant contributions. But the wheel of fortune is in his favour and by scoring a third consecutive hundred he joined illustrious company: only Herbert Sutcliffe, Denis Compton, Geoffrey Boycott and Gooch have managed it for England. His innings was ended when Lionel Baker found a gap between bat and pad with the new ball.

England's professionalism apart, though, this was not a great spectacle. West Indies' heart is not in it, something made plain when Anderson joined Cook at the fag end of the day. Suddenly, Edwards steamed in and the fielders became animated. But where had they been for the previous six hours? Only one thing impressed about West Indies and that was their over-rate. Suddenly, the cure for slow over-rates is clear: all you need are inhospitable conditions and a team who do not want to be on the field.

England: First Innings
*A J Strauss c Ramdin b Gayle 26
A N Cook not out 126
R S Bopara b Baker 108
J M Anderson not out 4
Extras (b 9, lb 3, w 6, nb 20) 38
Total (2 wkts, 90 overs) 302
K P Pietersen, P D Collingwood, †M J Prior, T T Bresnan, S C J Broad, G P Swann and G Onions to bat.
Fall of wickets: 1-69, 2-282.
Bowling: Taylor 14-1-42-0; Edwards 14-0-58-0; Baker 19-3-60-1; Gayle 12-2-28-1; Benn 22-6-78-0; Simmons 9-0-24-0.
West Indies: *C H Gayle, D S Smith, R R Sarwan, L M P Simmons, S Chanderpaul, B P Nash, D Ramdin, J E Taylor, S J Benn, F H Edwards, L S Baker.
Umpires: S J Davis (Australia) and E A R de Silva (Sri Lanka).