A RECORD stand between Mark Chilton and Iain Sutcliffe guided Lancashire to a comfortable eight-wicket victory over Surrey at Whitgift School.
The pair added 223 for the first wicket to see their side most of the way towards a target of 236, reached with 35 balls to spare after Surrey had been restricted to 235 for nine on a good pitch.
The victory is some revenge for the recent Twenty20 and Championship defeats suffered at the hands of Surrey. Lancashire still has a chance of winning the totesport League but a very slim one, as Glamorgan only need one more victory from four matches.
Chilton hit a career best 115 at a run-a-ball with 19 fours while Sutcliffe notched up his first one-day ton for Lancashire, reaching his landmark with the winning boundary. In all he faced 106 balls and hit 17 fours.
Chilton said: "We were poor in the Championship but bounced back well and put in a good performance. Sutty and I got off to a good start and after the first 10 to 15 overs we were really dominant."
The stand broke the previous record of 197, held by John Crawley and Graham Lloyd for the third wicket against Durham at Old Trafford in 1997 and the previous best opening stand of 192 by Michael Atherton and Saurav Ganguly in 2000 against Somerset.
Lancashire caused Surrey plenty of problems after putting them into bat thanks to Dominic Cork, who took three wickets in 12 balls including the in-form Mark Ramprakash for a duck.
When Chris Schofield brilliantly ran out Jon Batty from backward point the home side were 72 for six. But Adam Hollioake (66) and Alex Tudor (56) added 128 in 21 overs for the seventh wicket to give the score some respectability.
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