LANCASHIRE crashed to their first ever floodlit defeat despite a battling innings from Mark Harvey at Edgbaston last night.

The Burnley youngster, called up for his third AXA League game in place of the injured Neil Fairbrother, top scored with 39, a new career best, and together with Graham Lloyd looked to be rescuing Lancashire after a disastrous start.

But once their fourth wicket stand of 65 was broken, Lancashire tumbled to 154 all out and a 27 run defeat which is a big blow to their title hopes.

They had bowled and fielded well to restrict Warwickshire to 181-4 despite a rare half century from the out of sorts Brian Lara.

The West Indies skipper made 60 and shared a partnership of 111 in 24 overs with off spinner Neil Smith, who made 47.

But Lancashire's own off spinner, Gary Yates, then sent them both back on his way to figures of 2-26, and with Ian Austin conceding only eight runs from his six overs, Lancashire could be pleased with their efforts.

But they then gave themselves an uphill task by sacrificing three wickets in the first few overs of their reply. Andy Flintoff was caught on the boundary then even more sloppily, both Paddy McKeown and John Crawley were run out trying to take quick singles to Trevor Penney, who is recognised as one of the best fielders in the English game.

That was 15-3 and despite Harvey's efforts, Lancashire were always struggling.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.