STEVE Rhodes revealed his Worcestershire players were determined to win the Glamorgan clash in honour of late academy director Damian D’Oliveira.

D’Oliveira was responsible for the development of many of the current first-team squad and the announcement of his death by Rhodes before the start on Sunday hit the players hard.

But there was a focus on “Doing it for Dolly”, which was rewarded with a convincing 249-run win to put Worcestershire back on top of LV= County Championship Division Two.

Rhodes said: “We started this game with me addressing the players and telling them about what happened with Damian and there were a lot of sad faces.

“They almost made it a mission to try their best to win this game in honour of Damian. It has been a tough week all-round but everyone is very proud that we could pull off a victory for Damian.

“Right at the end, Mitch (skipper Daryl Mitchell) again mentioned in the dressing room why we won the game and again it was very moving.

“We’ve done this for Dolly. The lads were very close to Damian and he had a lot of influence on their careers at an early age.

“It’s their way of repaying and possibly saying goodbye to Damian.”

Rhodes praised the quality of the wicket produced by County groundsman Tim Packwood and it was not the spinners’ paradise that Saeed’s 12 match wickets might suggest.