Bears' attack hit rich seam; CRICKET: Warwickshire take 16 wickets in a day to close in on win.

Byline: Brian Halford

WARWICKSHIRE'S seamers seized a long-awaited chance to operate in helpful conditions by hurrying their side to the brink of victory on the third day against Worcestershire.

The Bears' bowlers have spent much of the season plugging away on pitches that batsmen would like to carry round with them.

At New Road, however, they found a responsive track and took 16 wickets in a day to leave Ian Westwood's side within sight of their first championship win.

Neil Carter and Chris Woakes started the ball rolling, sharing seven wickets in a helter-skelter morning session.

From eight for one in the ninth over, the home side sprinted to 69 for one in the 18th then lost seven wickets for 19 runs in 70 balls to take lunch at 88 for eight.

Carter claimed four wickets and Woakes three and both soon added another after the interval as Worcestershire were all out for 111.

Needing 198 to avoid an innings defeat, the home side found some pluck second time round, reaching 140 for one.

But then came a blast from Boyd Rankin and Naqaash Tahir which reduced them to 152 for five.

They closed last night on 206 for six, just eight runs ahead.

Having lost the entire second day to rain, Warwickshire had no time to lose and Carter and Woakes duly bowled excellently in tandem, albeit assisted by some feeble batting - and a slice of luck to trigger the landslide.

Stephen Moore and Vikram Solanki counter-attacked impressively to add 61 in nine overs before the latter, on 27 from 26 balls, was adjudged caught behind off Woakes.

The captain was clearly unhappy and TV replays showed why - he didn't hit the ball.

No ill-fortune was attached to his team-mates' demise, though. After Woakes forced Moore to edged into the slips, the rest was a procession. The 20-year-old ended with four for 30 and Carter five for 37, his seventh five-for for the Bears and third against Worcestershire.

Following on, after Darryl Mitchell perished loosely, Moore and Solanki added 121 in 27 overs before the latter cut hard at Rankin and Jim Troughton took a superb catch at point.

Moore (88, 111 balls, 17 fours) edged Tahir into the slips then Rankin, building up genuine pace, castled Ben Smith, and induced a fatal edge from Steven Davies. Alex Kervezee had just ensured Warwickshire must bat again when he edged Carter to Tim Ambrose.

CAPTION(S):

NEW BALL THREAT... Chris Woakes helped rip through Worcestershire.