Durham 573 for 9 (Bedingham 279, Ackermann 186, Wells 4-69) beat Lancashire 228 and 282 (Hurst 67, Bohannon 56, Potts 9-68) by an innings and 63 runs

At one stage of his devastating spell from the Lumley End, Potts was on a hat-trick but he had to settle for three wickets in four balls when Tom Bailey nicked his second delivery to first slip Scott Borthwick.

The Durham spearhead, who hadn't featured in the Championship since June due to his England commitments, finished his first spell on this final morning with figures of 10-1-30-5 and ended the game when he had Anderson Phillip leg before wicket to complete a match return of 12 for 126.

"That feels really good," Potts said afterwards. "It was great to come back and deliver for the boys at the end of the season. I felt that was only right that we turned up to do the job.

"Scott Borthwick told me after my sixth over that it was time to put my feet on ice but I got a wicket and he said: "Okay, I'll leave you on," and I said "Good luck taking me off," but after my tenth over I was absolutely goosed. I'd thrown everything I could at them.

"I took the second new ball and threw the old one as far as I could off the field. It's a disgusting thing, I've got it in my pocket and it looks as though I've been throwing it for my dogs for the past hour."

Durham take 24 points from the game, effectively ending any lingering fears of relegation, whereas Lancashire take one point, a return which keeps them in ninth place in Division One and deepens their anxieties that they will be playing in the second tier next April.

"Ours is a very quiet changing room at the moment," Keaton Jennings, Lancashire's captain, said. "The players are hurting. It's tough to take, you don't want to turn up every week and get spanked around, it's not why we spent months and months working in the winter.

"We now have to make sure we turn up next week. We have two really big games ahead of us and it could come down to eight days of cricket."

Lancashire's collapse began with the ninth ball of the morning when George Balderson was leg before wicket to Potts for 16 but it really moved into top gear about half an hour later when Venkatesh Iyer played on to the Durham fast bowler and Tom Hartley immediately lost his off stump when not attempting a stroke.

Bailey prevented the hat-trick but nicked his second ball from Potts to Borthwick to leave yet another Lancashire innings in tatters on 195 for eight.

Hurst and Anderson Philip delayed Durham for a few overs but Borthwick's bowlers were not to be denied. Having made a fine 67 off 125 balls, Hurst hooked Potts to long leg where Callum Parkinson took an excellent tumbling catch a few inches from the boundary rope.

After an entertaining last-wicket stand of 61 in 12 overs between Anderson Philip and Tom Aspinwall, the game ended when Potts was recalled and dismissed Phillip for 41. Aspinwall finished unbeaten on 26.

The bad news for Durham supporters ahead of their final two Championship games is that Potts will now join England's squad for the one-day internationals and will not be available to the county for the rest of the season.