YORK'S Jack Leaning ended his wait for his first century for Yorkshire by hitting an unbeaten 111 to guide the Vikings to a towering 290-6 in today’s crucial Royal London One-Day Cup match against Essex Eagles at Scarborough.

Put into bat in sunny but blustery conditions after groundsman John Dodds and his team worked from 6am to clear surface water from the pitch, Yorkshire looked on course for a far lesser total for most of their innings.

But Leaning combined with Andrew Hodd, the match-winner in Friday’s nail-biting win at Leicester, to add 109 in 13 overs and help Yorkshire add 124 runs in the last ten overs.

Leaning’s innings, off only 99 balls and including four fours and four sixes, was also the highest individual score for a Yorkshire player against Essex in a 50-over game, beating Simon Kellett’s 92 at Chelmsford in 1995.

Adam Lyth gave Yorkshire the impetus at the start of their innings but once he was run out from cover after Andrew Gale attempted to steal a quick single, their run-rate dropped dramatically.

Gale and Leaning scored only one boundary in the next 11 overs but the Yorkshire captain progressed to just five runs short of his half century before driving Ryan ten Doeschate, the Essex captain, to point.

It was not until Andrew Hodd, the match-winner for Yorkshire at Leicester on Friday, joined Leaning at the crease that they started scoring at a decent rate.

Hodd was finally bowled to earn David Masters his fourth victim with nine balls remaining in the innings after hitting 42 from 39 balls, including two fours and a six, but Leaning went on to join up with Tim Bresnan and collect 23 from the final over from Graham Napier.