GRAEME HICK may bridle at the label ``flat track bully'' but in the particular circumstances of Worcestershire's 48-run victory over Derbyshire it served as well as anything to describe the domineering mood of his unbeaten 88 off 63 balls, a brutally effective assault which can hardly impair his claim for a place in the England side for the fourth Test at Trent Bridge.

This was not Hick the bloodless accumulator. This was Hick at his most mus- cular and dismissive as he and Vikram Solanki, whose unbeaten 120 off 109 balls was his first century in limited-overs cricket, rattled up an unbroken second-wicket stand worth 175 in only 19 overs.

A total of 271 for one always looked mountainous and, bravely as Michael Slater took up the challenge with his first century in any competition for Derbyshire, so it proved.

From 179 for two in 30 overs and still fancying their chances, Derbyshire plunged headlong to 223 all out in the next 8.4 overs, Stuart Lampitt taking four for 33 and David Leatherdale four for 19 on a day which found the County Ground at its most gloomy and windswept.

If the weather was inimical, this pitch was anything but and Solanki and Tom Moody quickly established as much with a stand of 96 in 21 overs against a Derbyshire attack from which Phil DeFreitas was missing with tonsillitis.

Moody perished on the charge and Worcestershire's progress was further interrupted by rain after 30 overs but that left time enough for Hick and Solanki to stamp hard on the accelerator.

Derbyshire's response was initially no less belligerent, their first wicket putting on 110 in 18 overs as Slater vented the frustrations of a lean season with a compelling demonstration of astute stroke play, reaching 100 off 87 balls with four sixes and five fours.