FORGET the threat of relegation - Lancashire could now finish second in the Frizzell County Championship!

That's the way things look today after Glen Chapple and James Anderson combined to polish off Somerset in Blackpool in spectacular style.

They each took three wickets as Somerset slumped from 44 for two to 55 for eight in less than five overs, with Chapple adding the last two wickets to skittle Somerset for 71, the lowest Championship score of the season - and complete a crushing win by 336 runs which lifts Lancashire to the dizzy heights of fourth in the First Division table.

It gave Chapple a new career best of six for 30, to follow the first 10-wicket match haul of his career in the win against Sussex in Hove last week - he has now taken 17 in two matches, and 47 this season.

But it was Anderson who started the collapse by having Somerset nightwatchman Simon Francis caught at second slip - the first of three good catches by Stuart Law - then blitzing Peter Bowler's stumps and sending back Keith Dutch with consecutive balls.

He was denied a hat-trick by Richard Johnson, and Lancashire skipper Warren Hegg had to take his young paceman off a few overs later one wicket short of his own 10-wicket match haul - Anderson had taken six for 41 in Somerset's first innings - after he bowled a couple of accidental beamers.

But Somerset's coach Kevin Shine was lavish in his praise for the 20-year-old Burnley speedster afterwards.

"Lancashire have got a very, very interesting prospect for the future," said Shine. "I hope Lancashire and England look after him now because it looks like he's going to be gold dust. He bowls at a very good pace, he puts it in good areas and he swings it. They are fantastic gifts."

Anderson now has 45 first class wickets in his debut season, 41 of them in eight Championship matches, meaning that he and Chapple will be racing to reach their half century in Lancashire's next match against Warwickshire at Old Trafford next week.

In fact their next two games are against the two teams immediately above them in the table, Warwickshire and Kent - meaning that finishing second is in their own hands.

As for relegation, Lancashire are now 22 points ahead of Hampshire with a game in hand for extra insurance, and another 11 clear of Somerset and Yorkshire.

It would need the most unlikely combination of results to drag them back into the scrap now, meaning that for all the caution of manager Mike Watkinson, Lancashire can reflect on a job well done.