WORCESTERSHIRE hoisted themselves out of the National League Division One relegation zone thanks to a thril-ling three-run victory under the Duckworth-Lewis system against title-chasing Glamorgan Dragons at rain-hit New Road last night.

The disappointed Dragons missed the chance of moving to the top of the table when they were restricted to 122-7 in pursuit of a revised target of 126 in 18 overs.

Afterwards Worcestershire's delighted director of cricket Tom Moody said: "It was a nail-biter and it was nice to get on the right side of one of these games against Glamorgan.

"We showed a brilliant team spirit, but it was tough batting, bowling and fielding and both sides gave it their best shot.

"Now we have reasserted ourselves in this competition and it means we are going into our next one-day match, the Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy semi-final ag-ainst Lancashire, with a lot of confidence."

Mike Powell (33) and Matthew Maynard (32) tried their best to steer Glamorgan to their target, but the task proved too great when they needed ten off the last tense over bowled by medium-pacer David Leatherdale.

Their run chase proved a particularly painful experience for Adrian Dale who was forced to retire hurt when he received a nasty blow to his face when he top edged a pull shot off paceman Kabir Ali.

Earlier, the County, after being put in, had been forced to settle for a total of 117-5 in a match which was initially reduced to 23 overs-side and later to 18 following an break for rain.

They had to battle for their runs after the hard-working New Road groundstaff had carried out extensive mopping up operations to enable the game to start at 7.15pm.

Sadly, because of the wet weather, the crowd was understandably well down on what had been anticipated for a clash against the side who pipped Worcestershire for the title last season.

Those who braved the rain, however, were treated to a bright and breezy star with openers Vikram Solanki and Anurag Singh putting on 36 in five overs.

Once Solanki was caught at slip by Powell off paceman Michael Kasprowicz for 20, however, the County's fortunes began to take a dive. Graeme Hick and Andrew Hall both fell without scoring to Kasprowicz who finished with 3-23.

Singh departed for 25 before rain interrupted Worcestershire's pro-gress with the score on 84-4 off 15.3 overs.

Leatherdale went to the first ball after the break with skipper Ben Smith being undefeated on 43 at the close of his side's innings.