LANCASHIRE'S Benson and Hedges cup fate is out of their own hands -- and they have only themselves to blame.

They crashed to a six wicket defeat at Derby yesterday with a poor bowling and fielding performance which angered coach Bob Simpson.

"We are putting way too many balls in the wrong place," said the Australian.

"And as for the fielding, we are suffering from the weather because we have not been able to do much practice."

Lancashire have done well to recover from early trouble at 33-3 with Andy Flintoff hitting a superb 70 and good supporting roles from Neil Fairbrother, Graham Lloyd and Joe Scuderi steering the total to 218-6.

But other than Flintoff and Ian Austin, who was as accurate as ever for figures of 10-4-21-1, their all-seam attack bowled too many bad balls.

And just as important, Lancashire missed four crucial chances. Austin had sent back Derbyshire's new Aussie opener Michael Di Venuto early on, but former Notts left hander Mathew Dowman then teamed up with Matt Cassar in a second wicket stand of exactly 100 -- helped by the first miss, by Peter Martin at mid off before Cassar scored 20.

He went on to 43 and Dowman an impressive 65 -- which in addition to the wickets of Fairbrother and Flintoff earned him the Gold Award -- but good bowling from Flintoff and Austin brought Lancashire right back into the game. At 169-4 after 43 overs, Derbyshire needed 50 off the last seven. But then Lancashire suffered their worst attack of the dropsies. Graham Lloyd missed two difficult diving chances on the boundary, handing lives to Dominic Cork before he had scored and former Northants veteran Rob Bailey on 28.

Then in the 45th over Cork, now on seven, lobbed Flintoff straight to mid on -- only for young seamer Mike Smethurst to fumble.

Cork and Bailey made Lancashire pay, steering Derbyshire to victory in an unbroken fifth wicket stand of 51 with one over to spare.

Lancashire could still guarantee themselves at least third place in the Northern Division by winning their last group game against Leicestershire at Old Trafford on Easter Monday. But even then they would be relying on other results to sneak into the quarter finals.