HEREFORDSHIRE have gained their first MCCA Trophy win of the season after a dramatic one-run success against Cumberland at Workington.

The victory was all the more welcome as the county side had been beaten by five wickets by Northumberland at Newcastle the previous day.

The win will not, however, be sufficient to enable Herefordshire to progress in the competition as this weekend's final round of matches will decide who tops the group - current leaders Cheshire, Northumberland or, less likely, Shropshire.

Cheshire take on winless Cumberland at Barrow-in-Furness while Northumberland make the trip to Oswestry to meet Shropshire, who have the worst run-rate of the trio.

At Workington, Herefordshire had looked set for a comfortable victory when Cumberland slipped to 99-7 in reply to the visitors' 206-5.

But home skipper Gary Pratt, one of the heroes of England's 2005 Ashes win when, as a substitute fielder, his run out of Ricky Ponting at Trent Bridge proved a crucial point in the match, instigated a recovery.

The former Durham player's 59 took the score to 166 before he was ninth out but last pair Chris Miller and David Rooney carried on his good work before Dave Exall trapped Miller leg before with three balls to spare.

After the early loss of Ashley Nahorniak (nine), Herefordshire had a second-wicket stand of 106 between Richard Hall and Henry Langford as the back-bone of their score.

Hall stroked 13 boundaries in his 93 while Langford hit three fours and a six in his 50. There were other double-figure contributions from Chris Boroughs (17) and Gulsheraz Ahmed (17 not out from just nine balls).

Young paceman Josh Tingle took a wicket in the first over of the Cumberland reply and then medium-pacers Kez Ahmed (4-23) and skipper Boroughs (3-32) stole the honours as the home innings continued with their initial slide.

Langford was also in form with the bat against Northumberland where he scored 57, making it a profitable three days for the Brockhampton batsman who scored a half-century in a club game last Saturday.

Boroughs also weighed in with 38 but the innings' most lively batting came from Gulsheraz Ahmed whose unbeaten 53 was from 43 balls and contained six fours and a six.

Herefordshire's total of 217-8 already looked well short of par when DG Shurben and Alan Worthy posted 66 for the first Northumberland wicket.

Although Tingle then took two wickets in successive balls, Worthy continued to dominate proceedings by racing to 90 from 83 balls with 11 fours and three sixes before falling to Tom Glover (1-55) just short of victory.

Kez Ahmed (1-29) and Boroughs (1-33) slowed the scoring rate a little but Northumberland still eased to victory with more than 13 overs in hand.