LANCASHIRE have suffered a massive Benson & Hedges Cup blow with an injury to John Crawley.

It is almost certain Crawley will be ruled out of the semi-final with Yorkshire at Old Trafford tomorrow because of a pulled hamstring.

He sustained it in the Sunday League clash with Essex at Chelmsford and coach John Stanworth said today: "At first he thought it might be as bad as the hamstring injury which he suffered in South africa.

"But he woke up this morning feeling more encouraged about it. He will have treatment today. We want to give him every opportunity so we are not necessarily ruling him out at this stage."

However, Stanworth admitted that Crawley, who pulled up going for a second run, was very doubtful.

Crawley had to continue his innings at Chelmsford with Steve Titchard acting as his runner and Lancashire lost their early momentum, going down to their second defeat of the season.

There seems little chance they would risk Crawley tomorrow, despite the importance of the game and even though they are already without broken finger victim Jason Gallian.

Nothing has gone right for Lancashire over the last 24 hours. But Yorkshire have moved into top gear, crushing Surrey in the League yesterday to move level with Lancashire on 12 points while today they were aiming for the top of the Championship table.

Lancashire still have 1,100 member seats available and 2,00 0 unreserved tickets on sale.

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