WORCESTERSHIRE'S hopes of qualifying for the quarter-final stage of the Twenty20 Cup were left hanging by a thread after their penultimate Midlands/Wales/West group game was washed out.

Incessant rain at Himley CC, which was being used as a venue due to the flooding at New Road, meant it was not possible for a ball to be bowled in the Royals' scheduled encounter with struggling Glamorgan Dragons today.

The County must now win tomorrow's local derby with Warwickshire at Edgbaston (5.30pm) and hope for favourable results elsewhere to progress to the competition's knock-out stages, probably as one of the two best third-placed teams.

With the weather hampering the team's prospects of progression in the Twenty20 Cup and floods causing havoc at New Road, chief executive Mark Newton was understandably fed up.

"For sustained disappointment, this is unbelievable," he said. "In all my time in cricket, I've never known anything like it.

"Himley Cricket Club are very disappointed - they did everything they could to help us stage the game.

"Inevitably, when you play at an out-ground, the facilities are not as good as they are at a county ground but I have to say, with the rain we've had recently, I'm not sure we would have been able to play at New Road even if it hadn't been flooded."

County director of cricket Steve Rhodes is likely to continue with the same XI tomorrow that narrowly beat Somerset at Taunton on Tuesday.

Veteran batsman Graeme Hick will be going for 1,000 runs in the Twenty20 Cup against Warwickshire.

The former England man needs 90 runs to bring up the milestone.

The other group games tomorrow see Gloucestershire entertain Glamorgan and Northamptonshire host Somerset.

Worcestershire (from): Jaques, Hick, Solanki, Moeen Ali, Smith, Davies, Batty, Sillence, Kabir Ali, Price, Mitchell, Nel, Bollinger, Malik.