Roses clash assumes star billing

With Surrey inactive, it is Yorkshire and Lancashire's Roses clash at Leeds which assumes top billing among this weekend's round of County Championship matches.

Something of a logjam is building among these three teams at the head of Division One (particularly after all three recorded thumping victories in the last round of matches - against Leicestershire, Somerset and Durham respectively) and it might well be this tantalising fixture which begins the process of clarifying the relative qualities of the trio a little more clearly.

The home team heads into the game with every right to feel confident about the form of its bowling attack. Although Darren Gough has been ordered to rest and Ryan Sidebottom remains on the sidelines with injury, the performances of the pace attack have been a revelation this season and a huge factor in the northerners'consistent string of Championship victories. To a large extent, though, such confidence will need to be tempered in this case not only by the knowledge that the Lancastrians bring with them one of the more powerful domestic batting line-ups in the country but also by the memory of Yorkshire's crushing defeat when the sides last met - at Old Trafford at the start of the month. Heading the list of concerns for the locals will be the difficulty of identifying a method of restricting the outrageous batting talents of Andrew Flintoff, whose spectacular one-day century at The Oval on Wednesday must surely represent the stuff of nightmares for opposition bowlers.

Michael Vaughan and Craig White return to Yorkshire's squad to bolster a batting line-up which has been far too reliant on Australian import Darren Lehmann in recent times, while Michael Atherton's release from England duty ensures that he will be there to renew forces with John Crawley and Sourav Ganguly at the top of the order.

In other Division One action, a strange quirk in the Championship schedule sees Kent and Derbyshire meet for the second time in two weeks - although this time on the former's home soil, at Canterbury. In the last encounter, Kent recorded a thoroughly impressive win and, with Mark Ealham and Ed Smith returning (the latter at the expense of Alan Wells), the home team will be confident of doubling up. As might have been expected in the midst of a worrying run of relegation-threatening form, the visitors' selectors have been forced to effect changes, albeit not entirely of their own making - Dominic Cork's England call-up and the absences of Matthew Dowman and Karl Krikken paving the way for Paul Aldred, Kevin Dean, James Pyemont and Lian Wharton to be drafted into the twelve.

At Chester-le-Street, both Durham and Somerset will be hoping to put their memories of disastrous last-round losses behind them. It's the visitors - still retaining as they do a semblance of contact with the Division One leaders - who will probably be slightly more urgent for the points; Marcus Trescothick's return at the expense of Mark Lathwell a very welcome boost in this sense. Durham, meanwhile, will be enthused by the fact that Melvyn Betts and Simon Brown will be re-united with the new ball. Betts replacs Nicky Phillips and batsman Muazam Ali assumes the spot of Gary Pratt, away due to England Under-19 commitments.

In Division Two, the Warwickshire-Northamptonshire clash at Edgbaston assumes the status of the feature match. The home team, which has added Graeme Welch and Alan Richardson to the eleven that took the field on Tuesday, will have gained a welcome boost in confidence from its NatWest Trophy quarter-final win earlier in the week and will be looking to extend the winning form. With top spot in sight and against an opponent which experienced precisely the opposite fortune a few days back, the omens look positive anyway. For Northants, Paul Taylor has been promoted at the expense of left arm paceman Michael Strong.

At New Road, the battle between Worcestershire and Gloucestershire will take a slightly unfamiliar complexion due to the return of Graeme Hick and Vikram Solanki to the home team's ranks. The side misses its quality batsmen more than most and, with only England Under-19 representative Kabir Ali missing this time, its prospects look encouraging. Alamgir Sheriyar and Richard Illingworth are also back in the ranks. After a draw with Warwickshire, a result which gave them enough points to keep Middlesex anchored at the foot of the table for the moment, the visitors have elected to retain the same eleven as performed so creditably for them last week.

The final of the six matches will be contested at Southgate between fourth-placed Sussex and the struggling Middlesex. Sussex is still well positioned in the battle for the Division Two title and will well recognise the importance of a victory this week. To that end, the return of bowlers Robin Martin-Jenkins and Mark Robinson - in place of Will House and Billy Taylor - will be warmly greeted. Justin Bates also wins inclusion in the squad. Another debilitating loss during the week - this time to fellow struggler Hampshire in a NatWest quarter-final - has the home team still searching for answers. So thorough is the quest for an appropriate turnaround in form, in fact, that the two changes from that team to this one - Owais Shah and David Nash in, Paul Weekes and David Alleyne out - only came after exhaustive discussions at the selection table.