GLAMORGAN felt England’s pain after losing a vital toss in their LV=County Championship clash with Lancashire.

Not for the first time at Colwyn Bay, a picturesque ground situated on the north Wales coast on a soporific pitch, with small boundaries and a rapid outfield, the runs flowed while the bowlers toiled for little reward.

Lancashire would have been overjoyed to have won the toss and at the close of play had galloped onto 425/2 with the South African pair of Alviro Petersen and Ashwell Prince sharing an unbeaten partnership of 321 for the third wicket.

Petersen, a former Glamorgan captain, scored 205 and is just 7 runs short of a career best score in the Championship which, ironically, was 210 for Glamorgan against Surrey four years ago. Prince meanwhile played a majestic innings, reaching his fifth century of the season and at the close he was undefeated on 154.

There was early reward for the home County when Michael Hogan trapped Paul Horton in the seventh over for 1 and when David Lloyd bowled Karl Brown for 54 shortly after lunch.

But that was as good as it got for Glamorgan as the third wicket pair went on the rampage and when they added 246 they broke the previous record for the third wicket against Glamorgan set by Graeme Fowler and David Hughes at Old Trafford in 1983.

Petersen and Prince soon passed 50, the ninth time for Prince to claim his half century this season and it wasn’t long before Petersen reached another milestone, his third century of the season.

Prince who is having his best season for Lancashire has now scored 1108 first-class runs for the Red Rose county and if he does not return next season it will be a huge loss for Lancashire who are almost certain to return to Division One next year.

There was nothing in the pitch for the Glamorgan attack and the omens were not good when wicket keeper Mark Wallace stood up early in the innings to opening bowler Graham Wagg so slow is this Rhos-on-Sea pitch.

Petersen again showed his liking for the ground and during his short career with Glamorgan he made 144 against Lancashire in a 40-over game.

The new ball came and went with Prince majestically driving Michael Hogan for three fours in succession in an arc between mid-off and cover point.

After passing 150 the next target for Petersen was his double century and he achieved this by glancing Dean Cosker down to the fine leg boundary.

Petersen said afterwards, “Days like this in cricket don’t come often, when you are in you try and kick on to make it count – it was an important day for the boys but tomorrow is a new day and it brings new challenges.”