CHAMPIONS, so it is often said, reserve their very best form for the visits of challengers.

And for the first two sessions of this game at Headingley, this axiom seemed valid indeed, as Yorkshire dismissed the current LV= Division One leaders Middlesex for 212 with Jack Brooks taking a season’s best 5-44.

By the close, however, the game was much more evenly balanced after James Franklin’s seamers had taken four prime wickets inside the first 16 overs of Yorkshire’s reply to reduce the home side to 52- 4 before the in-form pair of Jack Leaning and Jonny Bairstow had added a further 44 in very calm fashion.

Leaning and Bairstow’s coolness was very welcome to most spectators in the 2,212-strong crowd, 85 more than watched the final day of the New Zealand Test, after Adam Lyth had nicked Toby Roland-Jones to Ollie Rayner when he had made 17 and the out of touch Gary Ballance had been leg before to Tim Murtagh for just a single.

The loss of Alex Lees, also caught by Rayner at slip, and Andrew Gale, lbw for 18, helped to increase suspicions about the Headingley wicket but this pitch, while giving assistance to the seamers, did not justify the loss of 14 wickets in the day, a point made clear by the technically sound innings of 70 played by Middlesex’s No3, Nick Compton.

Yet the first day of this game also offered another illustration of the talent possessed by Brooks.

The seamer struck first in the fourth over when he had Joe Burns lbw for four. Sam Robson and Compton then added 62 in 21 overs before Brooks struck from the Kirkstall Lane End when he bowled Robson for 41.

After lunch the visitors immediately lost Dawid Malan, caught by Bairstow off the excellent Steve Patterson for nine, and Brooks then had Neil Dexter also caught by the keeper for a duck to leave the visitors on 92 for four.

But the real excitement of the afternoon did not come until Glenn Maxwell bowled from the Football Stand End. James Franklin was caught at short leg by Leaning for three and John Simpson was leg before to the off-spinner for nought in the space of three balls.

With his side on 119 for six, Ollie Rayner launched a counter-attack, hitting five fours off Maxwell before being bowled through his legs by the off-spinner for 20 when trying to turn the ball into the on side.

The wicket of Compton then fell to Brooks, the batsman edging the seamer to Leaning at third slip when he had made 70 off 171 balls, a fine innings which included nine boundaries

Patterson then had Toby Roland-Jones leg before for 11 and Middlesex were 188 for nine. However, this wicket only delayed the tea interval briefly as Harris, having made 22, soon hooked Brooks to Ballance at long leg.

Brooks received a standing ovation from the delighted Headingley crowd. Maxwell collected 3-55 and Patterson 2-42. A tense match is in prospect.