LANCASHIRE are heading for one of their worst-ever Sunday League seasons.

Yesterday's five-wicket defeat by Derbyshire at Old Trafford was their fourth in succession, and their fifth out of six, and leaves them fifth from bottom of the table.

Lancashire's worst-ever position since winning the inaugural Sunday League in 1969 is next to bottom in 1977, while they haven't finished in the bottom four since 1985.

Lancashire were always struggling yesterday after Derbyshire's 23-year-old paceman Andy Harris, born in Ashton-under-Lyne, reduced them to 46-3 after winning the toss and batting with the wickets of Jason Gallian, Mike Watkinson and John Crawley.

Warren Hegg did his best to rally Lancashire with 42 from 38 balls, sharing a fifth wicket stand of 67 with Nick Speak, but the last six wickets tumbled for 29 runs in seven overs with four going to veteran lal-rounder Colin Wells as Lancashire were bowled out in the 37th over.

Ian Austin lifted the hopes of Old Trafford's biggest Sunday crowd of the season, 6425, with two wickets and Steve Elworthy bowled a tight spell of 6-1-17-1. But with Derbyshire 127-5 in the 29th over a familiar face came in to seal Lancashire's defeat - Phil DeFreitas.

There were a few boos for DeFreitas, who had earlier bowled a mixture of seam and off spin, when he walked out. But Daffy silenced them with a whirlwind innings, reaching his 50 from 29 balls with his fourth six which won the match in the 36th over.

"I've still got a lot of mates at Lancashire, but friendship ends when the match starts," he said. "It was nice to beat them."

DeFreitas will be aiming for a double when Derbyshire return to Old Trafford for the NatWest quarter-final a week tomorrow. Lancashire are left to ponder the massive difference between their form in 50-over cricket, which saw them retain the Benson and Hedges Cup last week, and their troubles in the shorter Sunday game.

Today they were facing their fifth successive Championship draw at Old Trafford after Dominic Cork and Karl Krikken rescued Derbyshire from the follow-on with a county record eighth wicket stand of 198 on Saturday.

Derbyshire declared overnight and Lancashire raced to 135 for two, Titchard and gallian the batsmen to fall, from 29 overs in the hope of setting a testing target and forcing a result.

Mike Atherton was today summoned to appear in the Botham/Khan libel action in the High Court but his troublesome back injury was unlikely to rule him out of Thursday's First test against Pakistan.

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