Worcestershire Seconds suffered a second innings collapse after fighting hard to earn a first innings advantage of 50 on day two of the Second Eleven Championship clash with Lancashire Seconds at RGS Worcester.
The home side extended their overnight score from 253-9 to 285 all out with George Newton eventually falling for a fine 73 on his second team debut.
Then Chris Russell (3-57) and skipper Alex Hepburn (2-29) helped to bowl out Lancashire for 235 in 63.2 overs.
But in the final session Worcestershire ran into difficulties against the new ball attack of Tom Bailey and Toby Lester as they were reduced to 13-5 and eventually closed on 37-6 – a lead of 87.
The day began with Newton and last man Dan Lloyd holding out for 12 overs while some valuable runs were accrued.
Newton was finally dismissed after defying the Lancashire attack for 245 minutes and 226 balls and hitting seven fours.
Lancashire lost wickets at regular intervals until, as had been the case with Worcestershire who added 69 for the last two wickets, the late order picked up some useful runs.
Bailey and Lester then made major inroads into the Worcestershire line-up second time around and finished with 3-11 and 2-11 respectively.
Hepburn got his head down to score an unbeaten 18 off 74 deliveries without a boundary in more than an hour and a half's defiance while Newton was back at the crease before the close of play.
WORCESTERSHIRE SECONDS – FIRST INNINGS CONTINUED
(overnight 253-9)
Newton c Hameed b Parkinson 73
Lloyd not out 7
Extras 55
Total (all out) 285 in 115.4 overs
FOW CONTINUED: 285
BOWLING: Parkinson 33.4-6-87-6
LANCASHIRE SECONDS – FIRST INNINGS
Reece c Brown b Twohig 58
Hameed b Russell 1
Guest b Scrimshaw 9
Jones c Twohig b Brown 4
Munsey c and b Hepburn 25
Laker c Malik b Hepburn 10
Lamb c Brown b Russell 43
Bailey run out (Fraine) 24
Kerrigan c Milton b Lloyd 1
Lester b Russell 37
Parkinson not out 0
Extras 20
Total (all out) 235 in 63.2 overs
FOW: 7, 34, 50, 78, 110, 122, 164, 174, 222, 235
BOWLING
Russell 15.2-4-57-3
Scrimshaw 11-4-28-1
Twohig 12-2-51-1
Brown 7-1-25-1
Hepburn 12-2-29-2
Lloyd 6-0-35-1
WORCESTERSHIRE SECONDS – SECOND INNINGS
Fraine lbw Bailey 0
Haynes c Edwards b Lester 1
Hepburn not out 18
Malik c Guest b Lester 1
Milton b Bailey 0
Hammond lbw Bailey 0
Twohig b Kerrigan 8
Newton not out 4
Extras 5
Total (for 6 wickets) 37 in 24 overs
FOW: 1, 8, 12, 13, 13, 23
BOWLING
Bailey 6-1-11-3
Lester 8-5-11-2
Kerrigan 6-4-5-1
Parkinson 4-0-9-0
