HEAD coach Steve Rhodes believes Worcestershire have revived their hopes of gaining promotion in the Frizzell County Championship following the innings and 56-run victory over Somerset at New Road.

The win ended a desperate run of four successive Division Two defeats and re-lieved Rhodes said: "It was absolutely vital we won this one. But I can't stress enough that in those four defeats we played some good cricket.

"That's got to be a good sign. It was nice to play good cricket for sustained periods in this game. We have now got games against teams that are above us or challenging and I think that's a good thing.

"They are obviously good sides and they are coming into the games with lots of confidence, but they are almost double-pointers and that's going to be an advantage for us if we want to go up."

Rhodes continued: "We are back in the race for promotion when you consider who we are playing. If we get a good win against Lancashire next week then all of a sudden we are right in the shake-up.

"We've also got Yorkshire to play at Headingley as well so we have got some very big games coming up."

Worcestershire had to wait almost an hour-and-a-half at New Road yesterday to rekindle their promotion challenge with a fifth Championship win of the season.

Carl Gazzard organised unexpected Somerset resistance with his last two partners, Andrew Caddick and Simon Francis, before the out-played West Country team slumped to an innings and 56 runs defeat.

A record score of 696-8 declared on the third day underpinned a solid all-round performance in a first Championship success since Rhodes became head coach.

Not surprisingly, Worcestershire kept faith with their slow bowlers and probably did not worry too much when Caddick targeted the mid-wicket boundary.

Gazzard played more conservatively and the ninth-wicket partnership was worth 58 when Ray Price broke through in the 14th over. Caddick, having made 39 from 75 balls, pushed forward and thin edged a catch to wicketkeeper Steven Davies.

Gareth Batty, the acting captain in the absence of Vikram Solanki, seemed to be focussed on wrapping up victory with the spin option, but in the end, he paid a price for dogged persistence. In 15 overs he conceded 55 runs and retired from the attack with bruised looking figures of 4-121.

Price was more accurate with 4-67 in 44 overs but the former Zimbabwe slow left- armer was no more successful in halting another half-century stand by the last pair.

Gazzard stepped up his tempo to reach an unbeaten 44 from 163 balls and Francis played equally well for his 29.

Kabir Ali finished the contest. Somerset had added 102 runs in 87 minutes before they were dismissed for 322.