Cricket: Weather-beaten despite a Roses record.

Byline: BY RORY DOLLARD

LANCASHIRE cricket manager Mike Watkinson was pragmatic about the loss of the third day's play - something which all but ended any hopes of a Roses result.

Paul Horton (152) and Mohammad Yousuf (205 not out) dominated proceedings in the final two days but with Sunday washed out in between, there was little hope of a positive result yesterday.

"We accept that teams will have won games around the country but there's nothing we can do about that. We can only be judged on the hours we've had available to us," Watkinson said.

"We're in the north and we are going to be affected from time to time, but we made a good fist of the three days we had.

"The lads battled hard on a difficult sort of pitch. There were good partnerships and it will be good for our batting confidence."

While Yousuf, who leaves the county circuit to link up with Pakistan this week, and Horton stole the show, Watkinson was keen to hail the contribution of Steven Croft, who hit a career-best 96.

His fifth-wicket stand with the Test star was worth 197 - another Roses record.

"A hundred would have been a great milestone for him in a Roses match, but his time will come again," said Watkinson.

"We needed a partnership to get us to 400 and maximum bonus points and Crofty was a big part of that partnership."