LANCASHIRE have lost control of the Sunday League title race - and Mike Atherton admitted they have only themselves to blame.

Yesterday's crushing 114-run defeat at Worcester cost Lancashire top spot to Essex, who moved two points clear with a dramatic last ball success over Derbyshire at Southend.

And as Essex have a game in hand, it means that even if Lancashire beat them at Old Trafford on September 7, they will need both Essex and Kent to lose another game to have a chance of their first Sunday title since 1969.

Even then, Lancashire would need to win all their remaining nine fixtures - pretty unlikely given their current form which has seen them drop 10 points in the last four matches. with their first defeat of the season at Somerset three weeks ago followed by last week's abandonment against Glamorgan.

"We're still right at the top of the table but we'll have to play a lot better than that to stay there," reflected Atherton. "It was a pretty dreadful performance."

Atherton was captaining the Sunday team for the first time since the

opening round victory over Durham at Old Trafford. And Lancashire really felt the absences of Mike Watkinson and Wasim Akram yesterday.

Atherton thought they should have restricted Worcestershire to around 15O after he won the toss to allow them to bowl first on a helpful New Road pitch. Peter Martin gave them a good start with two maidens including the important wicket of Tom Moody, but England outcast Graeme Hick then linked up with youngster Vikram Solanki to put on 136 against an increasingly ragged Lancashire attack.

Martin returned to take two more wickets and end with three for 33, while Ian Austin and Gary Yates also held things together to return respectable figures.

But Glen Chapple went for 59 in his eight overs and young Darren Shadford conceded 65, while Lancashire bowled a total of 17 wides.

Veteran seamer Phil Newport then reduced Lancashire's reply to 39 for three with the wickets of Atherton, Paddy McKeown and John Crawley. Austin, Graham Lloyd and Andrew Flintoff followed quickly to leave Lancashire 76 for six and needing a repeat of Wasim Akram's heroics on their last visit to Worcester in the Benson and Hedges Cup semi final two years ago.

But this time there was no Wasim and the tail subsided tamely to 121 all out.

There is still no definite news on when Wasim or Watkinson will return, although Lancashire will be desperate to field a full strength team in the NatWest Trophy second round tie at Sussex a week on Wednesday - the competition now representing their best chance of salvaging some silverware from this disastrous season.

Neil Fairbrother should be fit to replace Test-bound Atherton as captain in the Championship game against Middlesex starting at Uxbridge this Wednesday, while Flintoff could retain his place with Crawley also absent.

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