Nixon's sting in tail

Lancashire 495 & 191-3 dec Leicestershire 377 Match drawn

This game was rendered meaningless by Lancashire's first-innings extending ponderously to 161 overs. From 98 for 5, the Leicestershire lower order refused to acknowledge a tap on the shoulder and did not surrender.

The inevitable result was a last day for the statisticians, who were rewarded by a record Leicestershire eighth-wicket partnership of 172 between centurion Paul Nixon and David Millns.

Neither was born when Maurice Hallam and Terry Spencer shared the previous best stand of 164 against Essex at Leicester in 1964. Nixon and Millns, with a career-best 73, saved Leicestershire from defeat and another curio was added with the game's only individual hundred being from the wicketkeepers, Warren Hegg and Nixon.

All the finest counties in recent years, notably Essex, Middlesex and Warwickshire, have accumulated with panache but Lancashire were lulled into a lackadaisical attitude that, faced with a total approaching 500, Leicestershire would succumb automatically.

Nixon, with his sixth first-class century from 238 balls, confounded that Lancashire belief, along with Millns. When they joined forces, Leicestershire had needed a distant 161 to save the follow on and their response was utterly positive.

After Nixon and Millns had hoovered up their record, the match was in a vacuum, though Matthew Brimson, the left-arm spinner, took three wickets. Having already lost to Kent, Lancashire require a stronger sense of purpose, which will also be tested against Warwickshire in the Benson and Hedges Cup today.