DARREN Shadford briefly lifted the gloom hanging over Lancashire at New Road yesterday.

The burly 22-year-old quickie dismissed former England opener Tim Curtis with the first ball of the Championship match against Worcestershire when it finally got underway midway through the second afternoon, and added another wicket at Worcester slumped to 18 for four.

Tom Moody and Gavin Haynes then put on 40 before the gloom returned, bad light and rain stopping play - and threatening the chance of much cricket today - after just 25 overs.

And it could be a similar story for Lancashire, as Shadford's welcome progress has handed them a real selection problem for the rest of the season.

He surely deserves a decent run in the first team after taking seven wickets against Kent at Old Trafford two weeks ago in his first appearance for two years. There was no problem for the Worcester game as Lancashire went in with four seamers - Shadford, Peter Martin, Glen Chapple and Ian Austin.

But when they played two spinners against Glamorgan at Liverpool last week, they were forced to leave Shadford out.

And the pressure would become even greater if Wasim Akram and Richard Green can shake off their injury problems to leave Lancashire with six seamers competing for places.

Martin responded to the competition yesterday, firing out Graeme Hick and Phil Weston in an accurate and lively nine over opening burst.

Chapple produced a few unplayable deliveries against Moody and Haynes, but also bowled too many loose balls - which has been his main problem for the last two seasons. All of a sudden the highly-rated England A paceman could find his place in the team under threat.

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