Craig White was out for a duck at Bristol yesterday - and Yorkshire Phoenix were then powerless to bowl him as they tried in vain to stop Gloucestershire Gladiators moving to a five wicket victory in division one of the Norwich Union League.

The title-holders had only four balls remaining when they reached their 159 target and an intervention from White could have made all the difference.

Releasing White from the Test squad last week because of a bad back, England boss Duncan Fletcher told Yorkshire he would like them to play White as a batsman but said they could not bowl him.

It was a situation Yorkshire were far from happy with, because White has so far shown no sort of form with the bat and he has now scored only 26 runs in five visits to the crease.

His bowling, however, would have considerably strengthened Yorkshire's hand on a slow pitch which made run scoring difficult, but now they must give serious thought whether to include him in the team for Wednesday's Benson and Hedges Cup quarter-final clash with Somerset at Taunton.

Winning the toss, Yorkshire got badly tied down by the Gloucestershire medium-pacers. The only aggressive blows as they slumped to 53 for five were by skipper David Byas when he drove off-spinner Martyn Ball for six and four.

But they were rescued by a 73 stand for the sixth wicket between Darren Lehmann and Gary Fellows who accumulated runs steadily rather than spectacularly.

Lehmann suppressed his natural attacking game and it was not until his 20th over at the crease that he scored his first boundary.

He added three more fours in his half-century but at 56 he tried to run a ball from Kim Barnett down to third man and was caught behind after facing 78 deliveries.

Fellows soon followed him, lbw to Ball for a brave 30, and Yorkshire went on to lose their last wicket off the penultimate ball of the innings.

Chris Silverwood and Matthew Hoggard shared the new ball attack but their speed was not suited to this pitch and it was not until Silverwood changed ends that he broke the opening stand of 43 when Tim Hancock tamely played a cover drive straight into White's hands.

Fellows, the most effective of Yorkshire's bowlers, with three for 34, pinned Chris Taylor lbw without scoring and James Middlebrook ran out Kim Barnett with a direct hit to leave Gloucestershire 77 for three.

Matt Windows and Rob Cunliffe shared a 63 stand in 16 overs, but Windows had an escape on 31 at 108 when Hoggard just failed to hold a sliding catch running in from long on.

With 22 required off four overs, Gloucestershire held the upper hand. Cunliffe's lbw dismissal by Fellows could not take the advantage away from the home side.

Fellows had Windows caught at long on by Silverwood for 51 from 87 deliveries with three fours but captain Mark Alleyne struck the winning boundary off Hoggard.

Division One

Gloucestershire Gladiators v Yorkshire Phoenix(at Bristol )

Yorkshire Phoenix won toss

Yorkshire Phoenix

Byas c & b Ball 22

Wood lbw b Lewis 7

Silverwood b Lewis 11

White lbw b Alleyne 0

Lehmann c Williams b Barnett 56

Lumb c Williams b Alleyne 2

Fellows lbw b Ball 30

Blakey not out 16

Middlebrook b Averis 7

Fisher run out 0

Hoggard b Averis 2

Extras (lb2 w3 pens 0) 5

Total (44.5 overs) 158

Fall: 1-13 2-25 3-26 4-48 5-53 6-126 7-134 8-151 9-151

Bowling: Lewis 9-3-23-2 Averis 8.5-0-33-2 Alleyne 9-0-17-2 Ball 9-0-39-2 Snape 5-0-24-0 Barnett 4-0-20-1.

Gloucestershire Gladiators

Hancock c White b Silverwood 28

Barnett run out 29

Taylor lbw b Fellows 0

Windows c Silverwood b Fellows 51

Cunliffe lbw b Fellows 28

Alleyne not out 11

Snape not out 2

Extras (b1 lb7 w4 pens 0) 12

Total 5 wkts (44.2 overs) 161

Fall: 1-43 2-44 3-77 4-140 5-149

Did not bat: Ball, Williams, Averis, Lewis.

Bowling: Hoggard 7.2-2-29-0 Silverwood 6-1-16-1 Fellows 9-1-34-3 Fisher 8-0-33-0 Middlebrook 5-0-18-0 Lehmann 9-1-23-0.

Umpires: J H Hampshire and M J Kitchen.

Gloucestershire Gladiators (4pts) bt Yorkshire Phoenix (0pts) by 5 wkts.

Updated: 09:50 Monday, May 21, 2001