Yorkshire revive championship hopes

Yorkshire revived their championship hopes with a convincing victory over Somerset thirty minutes before tea on the third day. But their winning margin of an innings and six runs should have been larger.

In the Somerset second innings the tykes were held up by last wicket pair Steffan Jones and Graham Rose who put on 73 for the last wicket in 23 overs. Rose was the last man out leg before giving Simon Widdup his first championship wicket. Jones scored an unbeaten 56 his highest in the championship.

The match was over as a contest on the second day, when Somerset lost both openers and ended the day on 12 for two, in their second innings. They were still 206 behind Yorkshire first innings score of 400 all out. They lost their third wicket in the first full over of the third day when Hoggard bowled Holloway. The only specialist batsman who put up any resistance was Parsons who scored 30. Blackwell and Turner chipped in with 24 and 20 respectively.

In their first innings, Somerset were soon in trouble at 14 for two after been put in by David Byas on a green pitch. No batsmen played at ease and Rob Turner top scored with 38. Somerset were all out for 182. Apart from Lathwell, Rose and Jones the other batsmen did get into double figures but the top score after Tuner came from Holloway and Trego who both scored 27.

When Yorkshire replied they got off to a sound start from Widdup and Vaughan, who put on 49 before Vaughan was caught by Parsons off Rose for 30. McGrath came in and with Widdup they added 50, then McGrath was caught by Parsons off Trego. Trego then had Widdup caught by Ian Blackwell for 44 and the tykes were 113 for three.

Lehmann and Byas put 131 on for the fourth wicket with Lehmann scoring 77. Byas was the fifth man out when he fell leg before to Jones for his season's best score of 84. Both Fellows and Blakey scored twenties but the real excitement came when Chris Silverwood hit a quick fire 48 and helped Yorkshire achieve five batting bonus points, which at one time looked unlikely.

Matthew Hoggard celebrated receiving his Yorkshire cap with match figures of eight for 97.