Cricket: Wight finds right turn

Yorkshire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .282-6

Gloucestershire

PATIENCE was the name of the game at Abbeydale Park yesterday. A pitch which used to be among the quickest in the country was anaesthetised by the June monsoon, so that runs and wickets had to be hard-earned and timing was not always straightforward.

Both sides may be none too disappointed with their efforts, although Yorkshire again saw far too many batsmen become established and perish by their own hand, instead of going on to greater things.

Gloucestershire, with their inexperienced attack, will be cheered by the way their young spinners, Robert Wight and Mark Davies, performed.

Their captain, Tony Wright, may or may not have remembered that Wayne Daniel once put six Yorkshiremen in hospital here when he decided to bowl; but this pitch was so slow that some deliveries reached Jack Russell on the second bounce, while what rub of the green there was went against Gloucestershire.

One bonus came when Martyn Moxon was palpably lbw as he swept at Wight. Otherwise, the edges would not go to hand and Kevin Cooper, finding the tight line and grudging length he learned in leagues in these parts, must have been close to having Ashley Metcalfe lbw when he padded up at 19.

He, above all, would have appreciated the irony when Metcalfe later deposited a long hop into midwicket's hands. By then he and Richie Richardson had put on 106 but Richardson, despite the occasional exotic stroke, was still searching for his real self when he was stumped by the immaculate Russell.

Wight was the bowler, the reward for flighting the ball to a full length in only his third Championship game. Davies, the left-armer, looked to give it a genuine tweak and had his share of moral victories. Both seemed well aware of their side's great slow bowling tradition.

David Capel, the Northamptonshire all-rounder, faces several weeks out of action after breaking his left forearm against Hampshire at Northampton. Capel was hit on the arm by Malcolm Marshall and X-rays revealed a break just above the wrist.