Warwickshire suffer in rain

Lancashire 598 Warwickshire 126­4

Warwickshire's chances of maintaining a mathematical interest in the Championship receded further on a badly disrupted day at Old Trafford, where regular bursts of rain restricted play to 25 overs before fading light finished things off shortly after five o'clock.

The Midlands side could still, in theory, collect the 11 points they need to postpone Surrey's title celebrations, although at 126 for 4 in the 37th over they have yet to add to their two bowling points and remain 323 short of the follow-on figure.

Lancashire's bowling was measurably more potent than Warwickshire's had been while the home side were running up 598. Ian Bell, yet to live up to the high expectations attached to him when he was being touted as an England batsman in early summer, was the first casualty, beaten for pace by James Anderson, who now has 43 wickets from 10 first-class matches.

Michael Powell thin-edged Peter Martin to the wicketkeeper Warren Hegg, who pouched a second victim when Jamie Troughton loosely drove at Glen Chapple to end a partnership of 69 with Dominic Ostler, giving the bowler his 50th Championship wicket.

The Lancashire batsman Graham Lloyd – the son of the former Lancashire and England coach, David Lloyd – yesterday announced his retirement from first-class cricket after a career spanning 16 seasons and 24 first-class centuries, three of them double hundreds.

Lloyd, 33, the second Lancashire player in as many days to announce his retirement following Neil Fairbrother's decision on Thursday, had scored more than 11,000 runs for the county since his debut in 1988.