Rain Ruins Warwickshire's Hopes

Trott - top scorer for the Bears.

Warwickshire's hopes of closing a 15-point gap on Second Division leaders Worcestershire suffered a setback when the third day of their LV County Championship match against Northamptonshire at Edgbaston was abandoned without a ball being bowled.

It began raining an hour before the scheduled start and became heavier during the morning, leaving umpires Jeremy Lloyds and Graham Burgess with no alternative but to call play off for the day following a 1.15pm inspection.

As Warwickshire and Northamptonshire were separated by only six points before this round of games, there is unlikely to be any contrivance between the captains to produce a positive result so tomorrow's final day is expected to be a battle for bonus points on a dry and turning pitch.

Warwickshire will resume their first innings on 120 for three, still 287 behind Northamptonshire and 138 away from avoiding the follow-on.

While there was no activity on the pitch, there was some off it as Warwickshire completed the signing of all-rounder Keith Barker on a contract to the end of 2010 season.

Barker, 21, is a former England Under-20 international footballer who played for the Blackburn Rovers academy and had a spell on loan at Rochdale two years ago.

He was released by Blackburn last year and spent the last football season playing for St Patrick's Athletic in Ireland and for non-league side Northwich Victoria.

Barker has now decided to pursue a second sporting career in cricket and has been signed by Warwickshire after impressing on trial with their second team this season. He was spotted playing for Enfield in the Lancashire League.

Barker is the godson of former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd and his late father, also Keith, played two first-class matches for British Guyana in the 1960s.