THE Yorkshire dressing room was certainly a lot more nervous than Jack Brooks himself on Sunday morning as he went from 94 not out overnight to his maiden Championship century against Lancashire.

There were loads of questions on the balcony, most of which were about his celebration. "Do you reckon he's rehearsed it in his hotel room?" – that kind of thing. We thought he might do a knee slide like he does at Headingley when he gets a wicket.

A kiss of the badge, a bat drop and he showed passion. I will certainly always remember it, that's for sure. If a batsman had done that, he'd have got loads of stick, but because it was Brooksy, we all found it hilarious.

I don't know what he'd have done if Gary Ballance had declared on him overnight. I think he might have driven home to Oxford there and then, never to return to Yorkshire.

The first few overs of the day didn't actually pan out like we expected. Gary said in the morning 'get Brooksy to his hundred and then bat for half an hour and try and get as many runs as possible'. But it took 25 minutes for him to get his ton.

I'm not so sure what I'd do for my celebration if I ever get to a hundred. I reckon I'd go crazy – but it would be more shouting. I'd certainly kiss the helmet badge. Mind you, I've got to get to 50 first.

It was also great for Jack Leaning to get to his hundred, although I didn't see the majority of his or Brooksy's innings because I wasn't at Old Trafford on Saturday.

I've been around him and he's openly said to me that he feels good but the runs haven't come, which has been frustrating.

Sometimes cricket can get you caught up in thinking too much about batting and that's perhaps what Jack has done.

When he plays well, he goes out there, watches the ball closely and plays his way. That's nothing flamboyant, it's just simple cricket. To go out and get that hundred, you can tell he's so relieved and is jumping around a bit more. Hopefully he can kick on from it now.

Because we both come from the York area, he has been a big part of me growing up.

He's supported me around my early stages of first-team cricket and it's always nice to have those familiar faces who you've played against or with in junior cricket, so it's particularly pleasing for me to see him do so well.

I even gave him some throw-downs on the first day and said to him 'whenever I give you throw-downs, you get runs'. I came back on Sunday and said 'they're half of my runs'.

We played some good cricket in the match but unfortunately we had to settle for a draw.

We battled hard on the first day after losing a couple of wickets early. With Jimmy Anderson going down injured, it wasn't good to see from his point of view and for England, but it did give us a confidence boost in the dressing room.

They had a seamer down, with the others having to do more work, but don't take anything away from our batters. They played brilliantly.

Our next match is the one-day friendly against South Africa A at Headingley on Saturday and I'm expecting to be playing.

I think we'll have a fairly young and exciting team, so watch this space. It will be a good test for us against a South Africa side including some full internationals.

It's an important time for the older lads to get a rest but also for Andrew Gale and Rich Pyrah to see some second-team batters under pressure.

You could see the likes of Will Rhodes, Jonny Tattersall and Harry Brook all get a game – so fresh and so clean.

I would just like to finish by passing on my thoughts and best wishes to all those caught up in the Manchester Arena attack on Monday.

It is truly shocking and so close to home for a number of reasons, including being just down the road at Old Trafford as a squad earlier in the day.

I was sad and delighted to hear about the two lads involved from York, Rob Hay and Jack Chilton. Sad they were involved but delighted they got out relatively safely.