WORCESTERSHIRE opener Ste-phen Moore was putting the finishing touches to his best season with an undefeated 124 in a Frizzell County Championship rearguard action against Essex at New Road.

But rain prevented any play before lunch today as the County chased the Essex total of 574.

Essex batted into the second afternoon yesterday to reach their highest-ever total against Worcestershire, and set a target of 425 to avoid the follow-on.

Moore soon had to deal with trouble when opening partner Daryl Mitchell and the out-of-form Gra-eme Hick went with 49 on the board, but the home side dodged further problems to close at 244-2.

Ben Smith, unbeaten with 77 after being dropped behind the wicket on six, supported Moore as an unbroken partnership of 195 cut the overall deficit to 330.

The surface was blameless when Mitchell, opening in place of the injured Chris Gayle, guided a catch to gully for Jahid Ahmed's first Championship wicket, but Hick, on 17, had reason to be annoyed after being bowled by Andre Adams.

The former England batsman got off the mark with two sixes over square leg off Ahmed and had just pulled Adams for four when he was surprised by one that kept low.

He has gone 17 innings without a half-century and, with 825 runs from 16 matches, now looks unlikely to reach 1,000 first-class runs this season.

The rest of Essex's bowling lacked penetration.

Moore, positive from the outset, hit 20 fours and a six in completing his second century of the season from 123 balls and Smith, who started with a cut for six off Adams, collected nine other boundaries in his half-century.

Earlier, Essex's last three wickets added 177 to the overnight 397-7 and in the process Tim Phillips, with a career-best 89, and Graham Napier (55) became the fourth and fifth batsmen to pass 50 in the innings.

Teenager Stuart Wedge was the pick of the under-fire County attack, taking two more wickets for a final return of 5-112 from 31 overs on his Championship debut.

The left-arm seamer took the only wicket in the morning when Napier scooped up a simple catch to mid-off, but Worcestershire were held up again as Phillips put on 71 for the ninth wicket with the hard-hitting Adams (38).