Date-stamped : 14 May97 - 06:16 Small sets gold standard with lusty late blow By Neil Hallam at Derby Warwickshire (217-9) beat Derbyshire (216-8) by 1 wkt THE Gold Award changed hands more often than a pass- the- parcel prize before Gladstone Small, whose bowling had already established him as one of the strongest contenders, made it his own with a six off Devon Malcolm to carry Warwickshire to victory by one wicket with one ball to spare. Cases were being argued for four others among the adjudicating media corps before Small`s muscular blow sailed over long-off to take Warwickshire level with Derbyshire on six points and secure progress to the quarter-finals with group winners Yorkshire on a superior run-rate. Nick Knight, whose grafting 69 underpinned Warwickshire`s thrust for a victory target of 217, was their other claimant for the award. Vince Clarke, whose four wickets had shifted the odds away from Warwickshire, was one of Derbyshire`s three candidates along with England A seamer Andrew Harris, whose three wickets in two overs looked like being conclusive, and opener Chris Adams, who hit 61 off 68 balls. Finally it was Small who made the crucial contribution to a stand of 20 in under two overs with Allan Donald after Warwickshire had slumped from 191 for five to 193 for nine. Malcolm beat Neil Smith for pace to flatten his leg stump and make the early breakthrough Derbyshire needed but Knight and Dougie Brown put Warwickshire back on course with a stand of 96 in 25 overs. At 124 for one and with the inexperienced pair of Clarke and left-arm spinner Glenn Roberts in tandem, the clever money was moving strongly in Warwickshire`s direction but that changed when Brown, whose half-century required 67 balls and contained four fours, was lbw attempting to work the ball off his legs. David Hemp fell forcing down the wrong line and Derbyshire were back in contention when Clarke, a leg-spinner bowling medium pace, bowled Dominic Ostler behind his legs and then ended Knight`s disciplined vigil. The England left-hander`s half-century took 106 balls and featured only two fours but the need to revive a flagging scoring rate proved his downfall in his first innings against county opposition since the index finger on his right hand was smashed by a ball from New Zealand paceman Heath Davis in a limited-overs international in Auckland 10 weeks ago. Knight, who still has six pins in the finger, looked tentative against Malcolm early on but suffered few alarms before attempting to force off the back foot and chipping a return catch which Clark held at the second attempt. Graeme Welch hoisted Clarke over square leg for six to adjust the arithmetic in Warwickshire`s favour again before the return of Harris induced another decline. Trevor Penney was superbly held by Phil DeFreitas, facing the wrong way on the run at deep square leg, and Welch followed in the same over when he mistimed a full toss and was the victim of another fine catch, this time by Jones at full pelt towards long off. Ashley Giles was yorked and Keith Piper, batting with a runner because of a back problem, was run out by Harris`s direct hit an over later. Small and Donald, however, found the gaps and ran hard to take six runs off the first four balls of a last over from which they needed 12 runs. Derbyshire, who were put in on an easy-paced pitch, got a flier with 114 in 21 overs for the first wicket. But once Chris Adams had jay-walked into a straight one and Kim Barnett had slashed at the left-arm spin of Ashley Giles, their shortage of experienced batting was plain. Jones fell to an airy waft on the walk and only Gul Khan and Karl Krikken stayed long as Small and Donald profited from maintaining a full length against increasing desperate batting. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/) Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com)