IT'S been an old-fashioned week for Yorkshire with as much drama and emotion being stirred up off the field as on it.

With the controversy surrounding Asian ladies being portrayed on the new Sir Leonard Hutton memorial gates at Headingley and the invitation to John Major to open the new West Stand on the ground, it's been a bit of a public relations disaster.

In the end, the former Prime Minister did the honorable thing and "resigned" - a noble gesture after becoming entangled in a difficult situation which was not of his making.

In this column last week, I said, rather tongue in cheek, that there were several famous Yorkshire cricketers who had better claims to perform the ceremony rather than the former PM but it would be impossible for them to agree among themselves who should do the job.

I was wrong on that one because as the Major invitation row gathered fuel it became known that Geoff Boycott would support Fred Trueman being given the role and there was no dissent on that from either Brian Close or Ray Illingworth.

They were united in the belief that a Yorkshireman should have been invited and it was a good point of Fred's that although he had no axe to grind with John Major, who was a personal friend, he did not think Surrey County Cricket Club would have invited someone from Yorkshire to have opened a redeveloped section of The Oval.

The question now is whether the Yorkshire committee over the weekend will also give their support to Trueman or another of the club's illustrious former players. Or will they go for another top personality or celebrity from outside the world of cricket? We will have to wait and see.

Where Yorkshire went wrong is that they seemed to have failed to consult their top ex-cricketers on who they felt was appropriate to open the West Stand - just as they have apparently failed to consult Bob Appleyard, a founder member of the Sir Leonard Hutton Foundation, on the design of the Hutton gates.

It was foolish of Yorkshire to accuse Appleyard of "racist implications" in his query over why Asian women should be part of gates in memory of Len Hutton, particularly as Appleyard has been actively involved in the setting up and working of the Hutton Foundation, which assists scores of kids from ethnic minority groups in getting a first taste of cricket coaching.

Appleyard said he would attend this ceremony by Lady Dorothy Hutton - like the opening of the West Stand it will be performed on August 15 on the eve of the Fourth Test - in deference to the Hutton family, but he added that it was ironic that the most fitting modern tribute to Sir Len was the brick statue inside the Hobbs Gates at The Oval which also showed a scoring chart of his 364 against Australia on the ground in 1938.

"Here was an ideal opportunity for Yorkshire to have done something positive and they have gone and fouled it up," he said.

In the same week, Yorkshire fans were puzzled to see fast bowler Greg Lambert, who made his first team debut last season, bowling FOR Derbyshire Seconds AGAINST Yorkshire Seconds at Chesterfield.

The answer to that one is that Yorkshire have told Lambert that he does not figure in their future plans and that he can seek a new club. This gives him the chance to play for other County Second XIs.