LANCASHIRE arrived at Grace Road for their Benson and Hedges cup tie against Leicestershire today dejected after their championship defeat at Kent - but encouraged by the form of Mike Atherton and Neil Fairbrother.

They went down by 64 runs at Canterbury but that was cruel on Atherton and Fairbrother, who both played superb innings.

Atherton followed his B&H century against Durham, and an unbeaten 79 in the Sunday game at Kent, with another determined knock as he batted for more than four hours and 227 balls to reach 98 before being bowled by Kent spinner Min Patel.

But Fairbrother was even more impressive, slamming 85 from 88 balls in a third wicket stand of 140 in 30 overs with Atherton.

After two disappointing seasons since giving up the Lancashire captaincy, when he has been plagued by hamstring trouble, Fairbrother is determined to return to form in the championship this summer and yesterday was the best possible start.

He and Atherton put Lancashire well on the way to victory at 190 for 2, chasing 340 to win but the game was transformed when Kent's former England paceman Martin McCague had him caught at slip.

Nick Speak fell in McCague's next over then Patel, a former Manchester University student who always seems to save his best form for Lancashire, took over. The left-armer switched to over the wicket and bowled at leg stump to stop the flow of runs and was rewarded when Warren Hegg and Ian Austin played terrible shots by the side of tea.

As long as Atherton stayed Lancashire had a fighting chance but his dismissal left them on 242 for 8.

And Patel added the wicket of Steve Elworthy and Peter Martin to complete a spell of 5 for 22 from 62 balls and make it 31 wickets in four championship games against Lancashire.

Skipper Mike Watkinson was disappointed at the Lancashire collapse, but also at Kent's attitude during the game. "We had rocked them back on their heels when Athers and Harvey were going so well but then they went defensive," he said.

"We had looked at a target of 310 or 320 as being fair but they set us more than that and in the end it proved too much."

Graham Lloyd and Gary Yates returned to the Lancashire side at Leicester today as they aims for a fourth consecutive victory to guarantee their quarter final place.

Lancashire are currently top of the group with six points from three games.

And the Red Rose men continued their impressive one-day form, capturing the first three Leicester wickets for 52 after 13 overs. Steve Elworthy bowled Vince Wells for 18, trapped Ben Smith caught behind for 11 and Jon Dakin fell to Peter Martin for 20, caught by Neil Fairbrother.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.