Yorkshire may no longer whistle down a pit for their fast bowlers, but they have struck a rich seam in recent years. With Darren Gough and Craig White on England call-up, and their most effective all-rounder, Gavin Hamilton, nursing a side strain, even the talented Paul Hutchison continues to be surplus to their present needs. Yorkshire may no longer whistle down a pit for their fast bowlers, but they have struck a rich seam in recent years. With Darren Gough and Craig White on England call-up, and their most effective all-rounder, Gavin Hamilton, nursing a side strain, even the talented Paul Hutchison continues to be surplus to their present needs.
Arnie’s boy, Ryan Sidebottom, led the charge here yesterday as the Yorkies snapped at the heels of the Championship leaders Surrey. When he sent Saqlain Mushtaq’s leg-side bail flying into the early-evening gloom he had achieved his fourth five-wicket bag in six consecutive outings.Sidebottom, whose long, auburn pre-Raphaelite curls may not be altogether acceptable in some of the rougher corners of the Ridings, used to stumble in the middle of his run-up as if catching the edge of a rabbit hole.

He has ironed this out and his left-arm delivery is now fast, straight and effective.England’s recent debutant Matthew Hoggard joined in the party with equal enthusiasm, taking four wickets from the Vauxhall End. Although he leaked some runs later, once Martin Bicknell and Ian Salisbury had given a much-needed afternoon fillip to Surrey’s knock, he was instrumental in preventing the home side from taking charge.Surrey can have had little hesitation in choosing to bat on the familiar, bouncy and true turf of The Oval. And yet such was the testing given to them by Chris Silverwood and his young colleagues that they could only creep to 77 at lunch, in spite of a sprightly cameo from Nadeem Shahid.Captain Adam Hollioake gave further shape to the Surrey effort, anchoring the ship for the best part of two hours. Ian Ward, meanwhile, was becalmed, and when Hoggard trapped him shortly after lunch, it seemed a merciful release. Ally Brown took guard immediately after an undefeated 295 against Leicester, but cricket is a great leveller – he was undone by the extravagant bounce of Silverwood.As for Ben Hollioake, whatever talent inspired such tabloid enthusiasm a few years ago has not just been levelled but, one hopes temporarily, trampled beneath the surface. A cocky clip off his legs found the fielder confidently waiting for it.Although five lights glared from the scoreboard at the start of their innings, Yorkshire were asked to survive for 20 testing overs.

They came within two balls of doing so, when David Byas pushed Salisbury to Adam Hollioake at silly point.. There was a look of the mountain to the Sussex innings, they had struggled on the foothills of misfortune in the morning, when wickets tumbled to the swing of Mark Ilott and the bounce from the Castle End. There was a look of the mountain to the Sussex innings, they had struggled on the foothills of misfortune in the morning, when wickets tumbled to the swing of Mark Ilott and the bounce from the Castle End.
It needed some watchful traversing and delicate negotiating of tricky passages of play before Robin Martin-Jenkins and Tony Cottey edged the innings over and around some precipitous moments.Martin-Jenkins, driving confidently, was the more aggressive of the partnership. The pair put on exactly 150 for the fifth wicket, having countered the wily Ilott, a fiery Ronnie Irani, an awkward Sussex old boy Danny Law and Ashley Cowan, these last two generating plenty of lift from that bouncy Castle End.Both batsmen reached the 80s, for Martin-Jenkins it was the rarified atmosphere of a career best, but no sooner had he arrived at his personal peak than he was toppled, tempted by a widish lifting ball from Law. Cottey was to fall in similar fashion to another identical ball from Law a couple of overs later which was snaffled by Barry Hyam behind the stumps.It was all downhill after that as the Sussex innings plummeted from summit to trough.

But at least they had saved themselves from potential disaster at 45 for 4, after Ilott had accounted for the opener Toby Peirce and the Australian Michael Bevan – the latter shouldering arms to what must have been a straight ball, since it hit off bail – in the same over.When captain Chris Adams opted for a similar tactic to Bevan in Cowan’s third over he too lost his off bail to one that nipped back. The tail end of the Sussex innings also disappeared down crevasses, but Umer Rashid and Jason Lewry stuck around long enough to grab a second batting point and a fascinating day ended satisfyingly with Sussex dismissing the two Pauls, Prichard and Grayson, in the chill of the evening.. Arsenal are optimistic that their £6m signing of the midfielder Edu will go ahead despite the Brazilian being refused entry to the country after arriving at Heathrow yesterday with a forged passport. Arsenal are optimistic that their £6m signing of the midfielder Edu will go ahead despite the Brazilian being refused entry to the country after arriving at Heathrow yesterday with a forged passport.
Edu, whose full name is Eduardo Daude Gaspar, has returned to South America to try to sort out documentation that would allow him to take up his four-year contract to play in the Premiership.Unless the 22-year-old can produce the Portuguese passport he assured Arsenal he possessed, he will not be able to. Without a European Union connection he would need a work permit, which he would not be granted. Arsenal’s other Brazilian signing, Silvinho, does have a Portuguese passport.The Edu saga parallels that of Esteban Fuertes, the Argentinian striker who was forced to tear up his contract with Derby. Fuertes was supposed to have a Spanish passport, which would have allowed him into the country as an EU citizen.