COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP DIVISION ONE, New Road:
CLOSE OF PLAY, DAY ONE: Warwickshire 309, Worcestershire 2-0 (Warwicks 3pts, Worcs 3pts)
31 July - 3 August 2009

Tim Ambrose lost his England Test place back in February

Tim Ambrose (63) and Rikki Clarke (50) led a Warwickshire recovery on day one of the County Championship match with Worcestershire at New Road.

The former England players put on 116 for the sixth-wicket after Warwickshire had slipped to 160-5.

Jonathan Trott (67) also made a half-century for the visitors, who were eventually bowled out for 309.

Richard Jones (4-66) and Gareth Andrew (3-57) led the way for Worcestershire, who closed the day on 2-0.

Warwickshire were struggling after losing Trott, but Ambrose and Clarke launched a counter-attack to take full advantage of a let-off for Ambrose before he had scored.

After reviving their side by putting on 116 in 23 overs, the sixth-pair were swept up by Matt Mason and Jones in a spirited response by Worcestershire's injury-hit attack after tea.

Mason, shouldering the main workload with 2-51 from 21 overs, had Ambrose caught at second slip for 63 and Jones, with a career-best in his fourth Championship match, bowled Clarke for 50.

Earlier, a fallible top-order quickly saw Warwickshire in trouble, Ian Westwood (22), Neil Carter (13) amd Jim Troughton (6) all made little impact.

Worcestershire bowler Matt Mason told BBC Hereford and Worcester:

"It was a good all-round performance from all the bowlers and there were glimpses of some really good stuff when we strung good partnerships together.

"There was still a little bit of poor bowling in amongst that at times where we let the momentum go a little bit with a few four-balls.

"But for the youngsters, especially the likes of Richard Jones, I thought is was a really good performance."

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