The Essex Eagles were dumped at the bottom of the National League First Division table as they crashed to a humiliating 139-runs defeat against Hampshire Hawks.

In their most pathetic performance of the season, Nasser Hussain and his men were shot out for a miserly 120 in 23.4 overs when replying to a total of 259-5 at sunny Southchurch Park yesterday.

They never recovered from a nightmare start in which Hussain, Stephen Peters and Ronnie Irani were all back in the pavilion with the innings only ten deliveries old.

When Stuart Law departed two overs later with only 18 on the board, the contest was well and truly over.

Following the devastating impact made by Nixon McLean and Peter Hartley, the latter getting rid of skipper Hussain and vice-captain Irani with successive balls, seamer Simon Renshaw made sure there was no recovery.

He demolished the middle order with relative ease despite a few defiant blows from Paul Grayson and Danny Law, both of whom made 20, and Barry Hyam, who was last out for 35.

Grayson and Law were to become victims of Renshaw as he emerged with figures of 4-40. Hartley ended with 3-29.

Hampshire's innings was built around opener Jason Lacey. Against an attack lacking the injured Mark Ilott and Ricky Anderson, he seldom experienced an anxious moment while hitting an unbeaten 106.

It could hardly be described as a savage innings, but he scored freely enough to gather his runs from 135 deliveries, 10 of which he despatched to the boundary.

Lacey shared in an opening stand of 76 in 17 overs with Derek Kenway (46) and one of 105 with Giles White, who was trapped lbw by Peter Such when three short of his half-century.

The only Essex player who will remember the match for any length of time is schoolboy Tim Phillips, who was making his senior debut.

An 18-year-old left-arm spinner from Felsted School, he marked it by picking up a couple of wickets at a cost of 56 including that of former England star Robin Smith, who was caught behind trying to cut.

Heat is on - Essex bowler Ashely Cowan tests Hampshire opener Jason Cowan during a sweltering day at Southchurch Park

Picture: ANDY PALMER Ilott out following Middlesex scalp

Mark Ilott underwent a knee operation at the weekend and is expected to be out of action for six weeks.

This was the sad but not unexpected news to hit Essex in the wake of their victory over Middlesex at Southend which carried them to fourth place in the Championship.

The left-arm strike bowler had his operation after further tests revealed cartilage damage suffered on the first day of the battle against the men from Lord's.

However, despite his absence, the County still proved too powerful for their opponents, crushing them by an innings and 176 after bowling them out for 140 the second time around.

Most of the damage was done by spinners Paul Grayson and Peter Such as they claimed figures of 4-16 and 3-42 respectively.

Middlesex lost their last five wickets in the space of 35 deliveries while adding just 22 runs.

Andrew Strauss was the only batsman to put up much of a fight, scoring 42 before becoming the first of Grayson's victims.

This was Essex's second successive victory by an innings, following the one against Glamorgan.

On Wednesday Essex return to County headquarters for a four-day battle with Sri Lanka A - a match in which they are expected to field several of their most promising youngsters.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.