Worcestershire Seconds have climbed to the top of the Second Eleven Championship table as a result of their splendid win over Leicestershire.
Their seven wicket success at RGS Worcester earned the County 23 points and moved them two clear of Lancashire who have a game in hand.
It was their second win in three matches – and the game in between against Durham at Burnopfield CC was abandoned without a ball being bowled.
Worcestershire's other two victories in the Championship have been registered against MCC Young Cricketers and Northamptonshire.
Assistant coach Matt Mason was full of praise for the victory over Leicestershire as the Seconds chased down a 326 target in 67 overs with nearly three overs to spare.
He said: "The boys were very, very impressive. Right from the outset, they played a very attacking form of cricket.
"We won the toss, put them in on the first day and had two early wickets but then it did flatten out on and we stuck to the task very well.
"They got a very competitive first innings total and then we applied ourselves pretty well with the bat.
"But as is often the case in three-day cricket, it is sometimes quite hard to force a result so with some negotiation with Leicestershire, who I thought played the game in the right spirit, we were set a challenging chase.
"It was great to put the lads under pressure like that and learn about what it is like to chase down big scores and they did it brilliantly."
Mason felt there were several impressive individual performanes.
He said: "Tom Fell spent valuable time in the middle with a century. Alex Hepburn's contribution with bat in first and second innings, with the ball throughout the game, was good and I thought his captaincy was spot on as well.
"Young Finchy (Adam Finch) with the ball put in an absolute brilliant effort, Pat Brown bowled a lightning spell first day which was impressive, and Charlie Morris showed some great signs of being back (to his best) which was good.
"So all in all everyone contributed with bat and ball in to what was a really good team performance. They are a competitive bunch, they wanted to win that game, they chased the pace perfectly.
"Alex's captaincy and the way he spoke before and after the game was all about learning and was really spot on."
SECOND ELEVEN TABLE
WORCS Played 7 Won 3, Lost 2, Drawn 1, Aban 1, Bat 19, Bowl 20, Pts 97
Lancs 6, 3, 1, 2, 0, 21, 16, 95
Notts 7, 3, 1, 2, 1, 11, 19, 93
Yorks 6, 2, 0, 3, 1, 19, 19, 90
Warks 6, 2, 1, 3, 0, 17, 14, 78
Leics 6, 1, 4, 1, 0, 17, 23, 61
Derbys 6, 0, 1, 5, 0, 19, 13, 57
Durh 4, 2, 1, 0, 1, 6, 12, 55
MCC YC 5, 0, 2, 3, 0, 15, 13, 42
North 5, 0, 3, 2, 0, 6, 14, 30
