Cricket: Adams express: Derek Hodgson reports from Worcester

Derbyshire 246 and 285-2 dec; Worcestershire 266-9 dec and 162-3. Match drawn

CHRIS ADAMS scored the fastest century, in 57 minutes, in Derbyshire's history yesterday, surpassing Stan Worthington's 60-minute hundred against Nottinghamshire at Ilkeston in 1933. But the comparisons end there.

Adams did a good professional job (six sixes) and finished with 140 not out, but he scored most of his runs off the bowling of Tim Curtis, Damien D'Oliveira and Tom Moody as Worcestershire offered easy runs in the modern third-day custom of buying a declaration.

Worthington would have had to make his runs against a Nottinghamshire team of the Larwood-Voce era who had been champions five years previously. Adams needed 65 balls for his hundred, three more than Martin Speight against Lancashire last week.

After Peter Bowler had completed his sixth century of the summer, Worcestershire were eventually set 266 to win in what became 51 overs. They called off the chase with 11 overs remaining.

Curtis contributed 96 before becoming the first of three stumped victims of the Sladdin-Krikken combination. The second, Tom Moody, concluded his present Worcestershire contract with a flurry of swings and a deserved ovation. The big man has hit 17 first-class centuries in his three seasons in the Midlands.