IT was Chris Silverwood's lethal new-ball burst, followed by opener Matthew Wood's blazing 71 not out off 58 balls, which hurried Yorkshire to their eight-wicket victory over Dorset in the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy at Bournemouth last week.

After a rain-wrecked first day, Yorkshire needed a total of only 55.1 overs to put paid to their very ordinary Minor Counties' opponents but they still do not realise how close they came to being scuppered.

Within minutes of both teams leaving Dean Park there followed the most violent and bizarre hailstorm I have ever seen. It lasted around half-an-hour in bright sunshine throughout and came from a slow-moving cloud directly above.

The ancient wooden Press Box in which I was trapped somehow survived the onslaught intact - or, rather, without falling down - and when I finally made my escape over the outfield the water oozed over my shoes. Half-a-mile up the road everything was as dry as a bone.

Oblivious to all this drama, Yorkshire do not appreciate what a close call it had been. Had Dorset batted out their 50 overs there would have been insufficient time for a positive outcome and the result may have been determined by the toss of a coin after all - which was something Yorkshire had been dreading.

While the heavens were opening at Bournemouth, another significant event of which Yorkshire were equally unaware was unfolding at Exmouth where Devon were in the process of putting Leicestershire to the sword.

Yorkshire, automatically assuming that they would be visiting Grace Road in the third round on May 26, suddenly discovered that they would have a much longer and more expensive journey on their hands.

The good news is that Yorkshire have beaten Devon on all three previous encounters on the Exmouth ground and, better still, when they last played them in 2002 they went all the way to Lord's and scooped the Trophy.

But Devon are now a stage further on in the competition themselves and having once tasted glory they will want to sample it again.

The incentives are also greater because if they should beat Yorkshire and make it into the quarter-finals and then lose they will still pick up £11,500 in prize money.

Although Yorkshire have an unblemished record against Devon they are taking nothing for granted and are well aware that in 1994, in another match which extended into a second day, they did not gain victory until the final over.

In any case, Yorkshire have always had the greatest respect for minnows - ever since they became the first county side to come a cropper against Minor County opposition when Durham beat them in 1973.

Back to the Dorset game and although it was the first time Yorkshire have played them it was not the first time they have featured in the competition at Dean Park. They were there in 1977 when it was sponsored by Gillette and they played Hampshire who won the match by 86 runs.

With Arnie Sidebottom and son Ryan no longer with Yorkshire there is no Sidebottom at the club for the first time in over 30 years but an old scorecard revealed that Arnie had a good day against Hampshire.

He fired out John Rice, Nigel Cowley, Nick Pocock and West Indian Andy Roberts to pick up figures of four for 36 and then on top of that scored 45, but Yorkshire were still well short of their 262 target.