Tom Fell rewrote the records books as Worcestershire Seconds came within one wicket of forcing a two-day victory in the Championship match with MCC Young Cricketers at Barnt Green.
Fell responded in positive fashion after being left out of the senior side for the Royal London One-Day Cup match with Lancashire Lightning by hitting 223 of the Seconds first innings total of 521-9.
It was the highest ever individual score by a Worcestershire player in the Second Eleven Championship.
Fell's knock surpassed the 222 by Joe Clarke – also against MCC Young Cricketers at Kidderminster three years ago.
He faced 293 balls and struck 29 fours and figured in a third wicket stand of 234 with Alexei Kervezee who made 94 off 135 balls with one six and nine fours.
Josh Dell weighed in with 46 and there were useful contributions all down the order before the declaration with a huge lead of 286.
Alex Wilkinson removed the MCC openers to add to his four first innings wickets in his first Seconds appearance of the campaign.
But the leading figure with the ball was again Alex Hepburn.
He followed up his five wicket haul in the first innings by working his way through the middle order and finished with 4-31 from 12 overs.
The Seconds took the extra half hour in an attempt to force victory but MCC held on to close at 129-9 from 42 overs.
Coach Kevin Sharp's side will now have their fingers crossed that the weather is sufficiently kind to enable them to seal a first Championship win of 2017.
Worcestershire Seconds – first innings continued
(overnight 205-2)
Tom Fell b SE Grant 223
Alexei Kervezee c PA Sivarajah b LA Jones 94
Alex Hepburn c SM Imtiaz b LA Jones 29
Josh Dell b SE Grant 46
Zen Malik c MD Lezar b SE Grant 2
Ben Twohig c SM Imtiaz b OW Smithson 16
Joe Dodd run out (PA Sivarajah) 20
Patrick Brown not out 30
Alex Wilkinson not out 7
Extras 44
Total (for 9 wickets) dec 521 in 120 overs
FOW continued: 291, 341, 432, 438, 443, 464, 501
Bowling
Liam Hurt 16-0-79-1
Sam Grant 17-3-64-3
Ben Brookes 15-1-56-1
Oliver Smithson 16-2-62-1
Fynn Hudson-Prentice 14-1-55-0
Praven Sivarajah 21-1-75-0
Liam Jones 16-1-93-2
Tom Smith 5-0-28-0
—–
MCC Young Cricketers – second innings
Ben Curran c Z Ul-A Malik b AR Wilkinson 18
Safwaan Imtiaz c A Hepburn b AR Wilkinson 0
Finn Allen c JJ Dell b A Hepburn 48
Marc Lezar b A Hepburn 8
Tom Smith c PR Brown b A Hepburn 35
Liam Hurt c JMH Dodd b AN Kervezee 5
Ben Brookes c JMH Dodd b A Hepburn 2
Oliver Smithson st JMH Dodd b GH Rhodes 3
Liam Jones c OE Westbury b BJ Twohig 0
Fynn Hudson-Prentice not out 4
Praven Sivarajah not out 3
Extras 3
Total (for 9 wickets) 129 in 42 overs
FOW: 2, 31, 66, 92, 116, 116, 119, 121, 121
Bowling
Patrick Brown 6-1-31-0
Alex Wilkinson 7-1-33-2
Alex Hepburn 12-2-31-4
Alexei Kervezee 9-3-24-1
Ben Twohig 4-1-9-1
George Rhodes 4-4-0-1
