Worcestershire, leading Division Two of the Frizzell County Championship and bidding for a first appearance in the top flight, had victory over Gloucestershire in sight when the weather intervened decisively and left the match drawn.

Rain, which had completely washed out Friday's action at Cheltenham, struck again on Saturday half an hour before tea and persisted long enough to put a resumption out of the question.

Gloucestershire, at the stoppage, still had 35 runs of the first-innings deficit of 168 left to clear and had five wickets standing.

Resistance to Worcestershire's bowlers came mainly from former South African Test player, Jonty Rhodes, who remained unbeaten with 58.

Rhodes, who celebrated his 34th birthday yesterday, reached his 50 off 102 balls, with seven fours, and pulled his compatriot, Andrew Hall for six, just before it began to rain.

Worcestershire, resuming their rain-interrupted innings at 392-7, batted on this morning for another 44 minutes to add 47 from 62 balls, with veteran wicketkeeper Steven Rhodes scoring 63 off 100 balls.

Rhodes, who hit nine fours, was caught on the boundary from a pull at Swindon's Jon Lewis, who wrapped up the innings with the very next ball.

SATURDAY SCOREBOARD

Frizzell County Championship Division One, Southend: Match abandoned as a draw, rain Leicestershire 600-7 dec (T R Ward 168, D I Stevens 149, B J Hodge 74, J N Snape 52 no), Essex 351 (A Flower 127, J D Middlebrook 82 no, J S Foster 50, D L Maddy 4-42) & 111-1 (W I Jefferson 54 no) Essex (9pts) drew with Leicestershire (12pts); Old Trafford: Match abandoned as a draw, rain Lancashire 575-6 dec (S G Law 236 no, G Chapple 132, I J Sutcliffe 86), Warwickshire 255 (D R Brown 52 no, G Chapple 4-82) & 211-4 (M A Wagh 76 no, N V Knight 56) Lancashire (12pts) drew with Warwickshire (8pts); Guildford: Match abandoned as a draw, rain Surrey 411 (R Clarke 85, Saqlain Mushtaq 61 no, G P Thorpe 51, C B Keegan 4-114) & 94-0, Middlesex 385 (D C Nash 96 no, A J Strauss 87, Abdul Razzaq 78, J Ormond 4-106, M P Bicknell 4-102) Surrey (12pts) drew with Middlesex (11pts).

Division Two, Derby: Durham 501-8 dec (V J Wells 106, N Peng 99, J J B Lewis 77, P Mustard 70 no) v Derbyshire 287-4 (M J Di Venuto 143, S A Selwood 62); Cheltenham: Match abandoned as a draw, rain Gloucestershire 271 & 133-5 (J N Rhodes 58 no) v Worcestershire 439 (B F Smith 92, A J Hall 73, S J Rhodes 63, A Singh 50) Gloucestershire (9pts) drew with Worcestershire (12pts); Scarborough: Yorkshire 384 (M J Wood 155, M J Lumb 64) & 211-4 dec (M J Lumb 59, S P Fleming 53), Hampshire 289 (S M Katich 143 no, C E W Silverwood 4-86) & 180-6 Yorkshire (11pts) drew with Hampshire (9pts).

Tour Match, Swansea: Match abandoned as a draw, rain India A 165 (S Sriram 62, R S Gavaskar 61, S D Thomas 4-47) & 27-1 v Glamorgan 140 (A Bhandari 6-38) Glamorgan drew with India A.