JAMES Middlebrook was nursing a badly bruised and stitched eye today instead of playing against his native county in Yorkshire's Championship curtain-raiser with Essex at Chelmsford.

Middlebrook, the former Yorkshire off-spinner and batsman, top-edged a bouncer from Cambridge UCCE paceman Matthew Friedlander through the protective grille on his helmet and into his eye on Monday.

He was taken to hospital with blood pouring from the wound and his eye was closed and blackened yesterday, forcing him to pull out of Essex's team for today's encounter.

Yorkshire hurried to the Chelmsford ground yesterday in order to get in some much-needed outdoor practice in the afternoon.

So far they have managed only two full days of competitive cricket in the friendly with Sussex at Hove and for the rest of the time the weather has kept them mainly indoors.

Essex have fared much better and all of their players had a good warm up against Cambridge UCCE, who they beat by four wickets.

Matthew Hoggard stays with Yorkshire for their first four Championship matches, his England captain, Michael Hoggard, joining him for the last two, and director of cricket Byas knows that Yorkshire will never have as many top players available to him as in the first four weeks of the season.

Yorkshire have come away with victories on six of their last seven visits to Essex.

Updated: 10:47 Wednesday, April 13, 2005