THE "little bug" which has infested Worcestershire's first innings' batting performances this season has left them a mountain to climb in their bid to be in the first division of the County Championship next year.

To stand any chance of qualifying they must collect maximum points from their last two matches of the season - away to Essex starting on Wednesday and home to Middlesex next week.

But the odds of them finishing in the top nine of the table to secure a spot in the first division when the Championship is split next year looks extremely remote.

They are currently fourth from bottom and a daunting 28 points away from a place in the top half.

A big factor in their struggle this year has been a grave shortage of batting bonus points - only 11 so far.

"As the season's gone on it's become a little bug that has just infested the first innings'. We have constantly been 10-2, 20-3, 34-4 or that sort of score and you generally don't win games from those positions." said County middle-order batsman David Leatherdale.

"We are lagging behind a lot of people. We started off the season struggling. We played on a couple of dodgy wickets and players weren't on form. We then played on a couple of decent wickets, but it's difficult to equate the two.

Wicket

"When you play on a wicket that does quite a bit people are not on form, so you lose out when you get on a decent one. You are not as confident. The feet don't move in the right sort of places."

Leatherdale, however, insists the Worcestershire batsmen have tried to be positive and "talked quite a lot" about the difficulties they have been experiencing during the season.

"We don't want to get bogged down by the fact we have lost wickets early on. It's a case of trying to be more consistent, trying to bat in what you might term as phases where you are looking just to bat for lengths of time. Being 50-0 after an hour and a half or two hours if necessary, it's obviously better than being 70 for three or four. But it's been disappointing, you've just got to keep trying and keep working at it and try to be more consistent. We have obviously chopped and changed a little with Hicky being here a little bit and then not being here and the same with Tom Moody. It's been difficult and the lads that have come in found it quite hard as well. But the wickets certainly haven't helped us all year. Wherever you seem to go we have played on some fairly average wickets."

Leatherdale, however, admits that his own form this season in the four-day games could have been better.

"I'm disappointed really as far as the Championship has gone. I've obviously not got as many runs after having three or four good seasons in the last few years. You set yourself targets and when you fall short of them you are disappointed. But you are also disappointed as a team as well as an individual really. If I could put my finger on why I'd probably be able to correct it a bit easier. You want to go in at positions that sometimes will be beneficial to you and the team. You'd like to play positively but you feel that if you play shots you might well do the team harm and would be detrimental to that side of it. So you plug away and personally it's not worked for me all this year.

"The last couple of years myself and Steve Rhodes batting at six and seven have scored runs quite heavily and it's helped us as a team. We have struggled over the last couple of years to get a settled top six or seven batsmen and this year we have found it hard as other batters have as well. But once you get in a rut it's very difficult to get out of it whereas the one-day stuff has been totally opposite."

Monday, September 6, 1999.