LANCASHIRE were hoping to clear up two mysteries surrounding Andy Flintoff and Carl Hooper today after their Championship match against Middlesex ended in a frustrating draw.

Flintoff missed the last day at Lord's because of a pain in his bowling arm which Lancashire believe may be related to the virus that has swept through the club in the last 10 days - and hit 'Freddie' badly over the weekend.

He was having further tests in Manchester today although manager Mike Watkinson said that suggestions he could be ruled out of England's first game of the summer against Zimbabwe next week were unduly alarmist.

In fact Lancashire hope to have Flintoff in their side for the National League game against Hampshire at Old Trafford on Sunday, although he seems certain to miss the Championship game against Essex which starts tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Lancashire were hoping for a change of luck at Lord's today with chief executive Jim Cumbes taking their bid to register Hooper as a short-term overseas replacement for Harbhajan Singh to the other 17 counties at a meeting of the First Class Forum.

So far Lancashire have fallen foul of the red tape which prevents counties from replacing an injured overseas player, but Watkinson and Cumbes remained hopeful of having Hooper registered in time to make his debut against Essex.

If not, they will face a tricky decision between an indefinite wait for Harbhajan to recover from his finger injury, or signing up Hooper now for the rest of the season.

They will go into the Essex game handily-placed in third in the first division of the Championship despite failing to win any of their first three games, after picking up maximum bonus points against Middlesex.

But they were unable to make a single breakthrough on another rain-affected day yesterday with the Middlesex openers Andrew Strauss and Sven Koenig coping comfortably with all the Lancashire bowlers - and Gary Keedy unable to repeat his first innings heroics.

Frizzell County Championship, Division One, Lord's: Lancashire 565-7 dec (S G Law 198, M J Chilton 119, A Flintoff 111) v Middlesex 304 (O A Shah 81, E C Joyce 53, G Keedy 6-68) & 176-0 (A J Strauss 100 no, S G Koenig 71 no) Middlesex (8pts) drew with Lancashire (12pts), Edgbaston: Warwickshire 422 (I J L Trott 134, M A Sheikh 57 no, Mushtaq Ahmed 6-157) & 285-7 dec (I R Bell 107, J O Troughton 105) v Sussex 367 (T R Ambrose 85, M J Prior 84, M A Sheikh 4-60) & 106 (P A Cottey 55, M M Betts 5-43, D R Brown 4-17) Warwickshire (22pts) beat Sussex (7pts) by 234 runs

Division Two, Sophia Gardens: Glamorgan 139 (J Lewis 5-61) & 355 (M S Kasprowicz 78, D S Harrison 66, J Lewis 4-88) v Gloucestershire 400-8 dec (C M Spearman 75, M G N Windows 63, D S Harrison 5-80) & 95-4 Gloucestershire (22pts) beat Glamorgan (2pts) by 6 wkts, Headingley: Derbyshire 422 (L D Sutton 127, D G Cork 92, D R Hewson 57, M J Di Venuto 50, R J Sidebottom 7-97) & 214-4 dec (M J Di Venuto 77, C W G Bassano 53 no) v Yorkshire 230 (A McGrath 61, G Welch 4-39, K J Dean 4-39) & 240 (M J Lumb 86, G Welch 4-74) Derbyshire (22pts) beat Yorkshire (4pts) by 166 runs

Tour Match, New Road: Worcestershire 262 (V S Solanki 74, B F Smith 53) & 247 (A J Hall 68, S D Peters 63) v Zimbabwe 334 (S V Carlisle 157, T Taibu 57) & 175 (Kabir Ali 5-48) Worcestershire tied with Zimbabwe