YORKSHIRE Phoenix's chances of gaining promotion from Division Two of the NatWest Pro40 League were effectively ended under the Headingley floodlights last night when Worcestershire Royals beat them by four wickets with 11 balls to spare.

A 193 target always seemed within Worcestershire's reach after New Zealander Lou Vincent and Vikram Solanki had added 91 in 15 overs for the second wicket.

Th best bowling for Yorkshire came from York CC's Nick Thornicroft who had 18 taken off his first two overs but later recovered to finish with 3-35.

Vincent was joined by Solanki in the fourth over after wicketkeeper Gerard Brophy had held on to a skier off a big top edge from Stephen Moore, and he straight drove Richard Pyrah for six on his way to his fourth consecutive one-day half-century for Worcestershire.

It seemed as if Thornicroft had broken the partnership with 87 on the board when he appealed for lbw against Solanki and umpire George Sharp raised his finger but then reversed his decision.

But the end for Solanki came on 43 from 50 balls with eight fours as he attempted a reverse sweep and was bowled by Lehmann who later dropped Vincent when he had reached 58. Vincent had moved on to 72 from 74 deliveries with ten fours and a six when Thornicroft returned and yorked him with the first ball of his second spell.

Former Easingwold School ace Thornicroft also got rid of Graeme Hick and Gareth Batty but Worcestershire never looked in any real danger although Yorkshire pressed them hard until the winning runs were hit.

Winning the toss, Yorkshire were soon reduced to 52-4 as Matt Mason grabbed three wickets at a cost of one run in the space of 13 deliveries.

Before he struck, however, Craig White was yorked in the second over by Kabir Ali but Michael Lumb hit back with some sparkling strokeplay in which his first six scoring shots were all boundaries.

Lumb slapped Kabir Ali through the covers and forced him to the mid-wicket boundary and two more fours followed in the next over from Mason.

The left-hander continued the sequence with a blazing shot through mid-wicket and a straight drive off Kabir Ali but when he had reached 26 off as many balls he fell to a stunning return catch by Mason, who stooped low to grab the ball left-handed as he followed through.

In his next over, Mason bowled a subdued Anthony McGrath off an inside edge and he made it three wickets in three overs by accounting for Lehmann with a beauty which the Australian could only edge to wicketkeeper Steven Davies.

Andrew Gale played some fine shots in a fifth-wicket partnership with Brophy which had reached 48 when Gale moved out of his crease to Bradford-born off-spinner Batty, and was stumped.

Batty also got rid of Brophy, who top-scored with 32, and with both Batty and left-armer Ray Price posing plenty of problems Yorkshire slumped to 113-7 before being rescued by their late order batsmen.

Richard Pyrah, in his first senior match of the season, struck 31 off 42 balls with three fours, and there was a brave unbeaten 25 from Steve Patterson. The innings was ended in style by last man, Deon Kruis, who came in for the final two deliveries from Roger Sillence which he blasted for four and six.