Yorkshire Diary

Many of those unwanted extras were the consequence of erratic deliveries rather than through any fault on his part but any personal feeling of guilt by Guy should have been offset by holding on to three excellent first innings catches, two of them nimble takes down the legside.

It was only the tenth first class match Guy has appeared in since making his Yorkshire debut in 2000 but it was another important step towards establishing himself as the county's first choice wicketkeeper.

Rotherham-born Guy now plays for Darlington, where he is based, in the NYSD League, but Yorkshire fans casting an eye over the team's results may be somewhat surprised to see that Guy does not put on the gloves in league cricket.

"Yorkshire are happier with that arrangement and so am I," said Guy. "They might frown a bit if I knocked up a thumb or broke a finger and I would be pretty miffed, too.

But standing in the field also helps me to get a different perspective on the game which I find very useful. I can chat to the bowlers and find out what they are thinking and doing and I enjoy the variety which this brings."

Do Yorkshire let 24-year-old Guy stick with gloves in Championship matches or should they hand them back to veteran wicketkeeper Richard Blakey whose ability behind the stumps has not yet waned?

It is a decision which they will have to take before too long but the dilemma is not an easy one to resolve and it is exacerbated by the disappointing batting form of both players in recent matches.

Yorkshire agreed before the season started that Guy should be provided with some opportunities both to keep him sweet and to reduce the risk of him moving to any county prepared to guarantee him first class cricket.

Blakey was understandably miffed when he had to give the gloves to Guy after taking 20 catches and pulling off a stumping in the first half-dozen matches and he was even more put out when he lost his place altogether at Durham.

Had Blakey been scoring runs regularly it would have been quite difficult to ease him out but following his epic unbeaten 223 in the first Championship match he then scraped together only 97 in the next seven.

Guy unquestionably has batting talent but he too is out of nick at the moment and has only scored 26 runs in his four Championship innings.

It is perhaps inevitable that age will have to yield to youth in the end but Blakey may well feel more comfortable if there turns out to be substance in the rumour that he will be offered the second team captaincy and put in charge of the younger players.

Had Yorkshire been routed for 129 - their second innings score - on the first day at Riverside instead of being 340 for six at stumps, they could have blamed their slump on bleary eyes making it hard to concentrate.

But in the event they seemed unaffected by the 3am fire alarm call on the morning of the match that had them spilling out into the car park of the Holiday Inn at Washington.

Perhaps they are getting used to having their sleep rudely interrupted because this was the third time in a couple of months the fire alarm has gone off in the team's hotel at the dead of night. But Yorkshire have not lost their humour along with their sleep. As they all left the dressing room after the first day's play one of the players shouted out to his teammates: "See you all in the car park later on!"