HERE is some immediate good news for Peter Moores: Steve Harmison has set out on the road to recovery. With the first Test of the new coach’s incumbency 25 days away, the form of England’s mercurial fast bowler sits somewhere near the top of his worry list. Back in the comforting confines of the Durham changing room, the wounds of Harmison’s Ashes mauling appear to be healing.

Yesterday he took his fifth wicket of the innings and eighth of the match to open the way for Durham to wrap up an impressive opening to their campaign, beating Worcestershire at New Road by a thumping 241 runs.

One of the criticisms of the way in which Duncan Fletcher oversaw his precious centrally contracted players was of how little cricket they played outside the international arena.

Harmison looked undercooked at the start of the Ashes, as he did on home turf last summer. He bowled 32 championship overs in the last campaign, a mark he has already passed. Having sent down 29 overs for the MCC against Sussex, he delivered 43 in this game. The figures are impressive too: yesterday he finished with 24-5-63-5 to make it 72-21-173-11 from two games.

Geoff Cook, Durham’s coach, has been impressed with Harmison’s approach since he joined his county on their preseason trip to South Africa. “He threw in his lot over there, his bowling is coming and he’s getting back to the relaxed fellow he was when he first joined us,” said Cook. “He’s enjoying playing for Durham and getting towards Test-match standard with the ball now.”

Harmison made the breakthrough yesterday when Gareth Batty was caught by his brother Ben in the gully as Durham needed under an hour to complete victory. The rest belonged to Callum Thorp, Durham’s Australian-born seamer. Roger Sillence fell leg-before, as did Kabir Ali after a quickfire 19. Doug Bollinger was last out, edging Thorp to Gareth Breese at first slip.

The last time Harmison enjoyed such success for Durham was two years ago, and that set him up for his successful assault on Australia. It has been downhill since, to such an extent that his place in the Test side has been called into question. But on the horizon are West Indies, against whom he performed so brilliantly in 2004 to establish himself as the world’s leading bowler, and there are timely signs of the old Harmison.

There’s potentially more good news on the way for Moores as well. Today at Taunton Simon Jones will play his first competitive match in almost a year in Glamorgan’s Friends Provident Trophy game against Somerset.