TOM Moody hailed the genius of Graeme Hick after he helped Worcestershire to a quick Frizzell County Championship weekend victory.

The County took only 65 minutes at New Road to achieve a 100-run target and complete a Division Two double over Derbyshire within the first five weeks of the season.

After winning by 10 wickets at Derby in the opening fixture, they had to settle for a slightly smaller margin as Hick blasted an unbeaten 62 from 48 balls against a team struggling at the bottom of the table.

Derbyshire, despite spirited batting in making 314 in their second innings, duly suffered their third defeat in four matches when Hick and Stephen Moore guided Worcestershire home by nine wickets in the 17th over of the last day.

And 38-year-old Hick is back to his best form, according to Worcestershire's director of cricket Moody.

He said: "We are fortunate to have someone like Graeme in the top order. He is in such good form. He missed out in the first innings but his form this year is back to his best."

Hick was also praised by Derbyshire director of cricket David Houghton, a former coach at Worcestershire.

Houghton said: "He still makes batting look pretty easy. When you're chasing down 100 and have a very attacking field there's lots of space, but he eases the ball away at 100 miles an hour.

"He looks so fit and healthy. He's catching well in the slips and hitting the ball beautifully when he bats. It's like having an extra overseas player, probably better than one.

"I've known Hickey since he was about eight and all he wanted to do was smash cricket balls to the boundary and he's still doing it with a smile on his face."

There was just one County blip in the third over when Stephen Peters (two) was out to Ian Hunter for the second time in the match, carving a short ball straight to Hassan Adnan. All this did for Derbyshire was to expose their bowlers to a mauling by a relaxed Hick.

The former England batsman, 39 later this month, marched to the middle and promptly hit boundaries from the first two balls he faced.

A cover drive and clip through mid-wicket reminded Hunter of the dangers of over-pitching and the penalty was no different when the paceman dropped short of a length in his next over. Hick immediately dispatched him for fours with a cut and a pull.

Paul Havell was hit for the next boundary as Worcestershire stormed past 50 in the eighth over and the first bowling changes did nothing to stem the flow.

Graeme Welch failed with an lbw appeal before conceding two boundaries and Hick then drove Kevin Dean through mid-wicket to go past 50 for the 200th time in his Worcestershire career. In all, he claimed 13 fours.

Moore, still undisputed man-of-the-match after making 246 in Worcestershire's first innings, pottered along in his partner's wake and the opener was content with just three fours in his 28 from 41 deliveries.

Moore did have the satisfaction of finishing the job he began when pushing a single to mid-on off Jon Moss to wrap up his team's seventh consecutive championship win against Derbyshire.

Worcestershire are now back on course for promotion after successive defeats by Durham and Lancashire.