ONE of the most encouraging aspects of Worcestershire’s Royal London One-Day Cup defeat to local rivals Warwickshire was the form shown by batsman Tom Fell, writes the ECB Reporters Network.

The 25-year-old clocked up his first half-century of the season with 53 and looked in good nick in Rapids' 34-run loss.

Fell initially made his mark in 2015 with 1,000 County Championship Division One runs, including three centuries, before a well-documented fight against cancer.

He was successful in that battle and emotional scenes greeted his ton against Lancashire at Blackfinch New Road the following summer in the one-day cup.

Fell has shown flashes of his undoubted potential with the bat in recent seasons without finding a consistent vein of form.

But the County’s faith in the player has never wavered and Fell signed a new three-year contract at the end of last season.

Now he will look to kick on from Sunday’s knock as Rapids entertain North Group leaders Nottinghamshire on Wednesday (11am) when victory could send them back into the play-off places.

“Tom is a very honest bloke. He would accept he hasn’t quite reached the heights that he wants for himself (in his career) and I think that is the important part,” first-team coach Alex Gidman said.

“It’s not what we or anyone else thinks. It is about what he wants to achieve and he is very open about that and wants to improve and be more successful.

“Tom is an outstanding player otherwise we wouldn’t have given him another contract.

“He is now getting to the point where he is starting to pick up quite a bit of experience, both good and bad. That is part of the learning.”

On Sunday’s knock, Gidman said: “Felly has been working extremely hard. A lot of the time people don’t see the work that is being put in behind closed doors.

“He knows he has missed out on a couple of occasions and I wasn’t really surprised that he performed like that (against Warwickshire).

“He has been moving really well and striking the ball beautifully in the nets.”

Callum Ferguson has returned as the County's overseas player for the rest of the season.

The Australian right-hander will feature against Notts in place of the now departed Hamish Rutherford who scored three centuries during his short spell.

Club captain Joe Leach has resumed bowling after suffering a stress fracture of the back midway through last season.

The 27-year-old had taken 193 County Championship wickets in the previous three seasons.

Leach returned 2-11 from six overs for Shrewsbury in the Birmingham League and is now also back playing second XI cricket for the county.

Worcestershire went down by 54 runs in a Second XI Trophy encounter against Lancashire at Southport after the original game was abandoned following just 10 balls because of an unfit pitch.

The visitors had to chase a total of 209-6 and seemed on course for victory at 132-2 in the 29th over thanks to 63 from George Rhodes.

But the last eight wickets tumbled for 23 runs despite 27 from Leach as the County were bowled out for 155 in 37.1 overs.

When bowling, Pat Brown took 2-51, Rhodes 2-36, Adam Finch 1-37 and Reicko Parker-Cole 1-20.

A full list of fixtures for the Royal London One-Day Cup can be found here.

Tickets for Worcestershire home matches can be purchased on the county’s website via this link.