YORKSHIRE cricketers are sharpening up with the Forces in the York area.

Yesterday Yorkshire spent a day at RAF Linton-on-Ouse where they used gym facilities.

They also met up with young people to help to forge better relations in the community.

Next Friday, Yorkshire will report to Strensall Barracks at 10pm and spend the weekend under the instruction of Major John Mayo who will help them to improve leadership and communication skills and to sharpen decision-making qualities while under pressure.

This means the players will not be available to attend the club's annual meeting at Headingley on Saturday, March 12, but Byas will take time away from Strensall to be there and present his report.

The RAF Linton and Strensall Barracks days are part of a vigorous and varied four-week programme for the county club's contracted players who reported back for full-time training at Headingley this week to prepare for the new season.

Director of cricket David Byas has worked out a tough schedule which means that as well as the usual indoor nets and fitness work, Yorkshire will also seek help from the RAF, the Army, Leeds United and Rhinos in sharpening them up for the challenges which lie ahead this summer.

There will be no chance of an extra hour in bed during the present cold mornings because on two days a week the entire squad will be at Headingley by 7.30am for 40 minutes of training before breakfast.

It means that those players living some distance from Leeds - not least Scarborough-based captain Craig White - are setting their alarm clocks for around 5.30am to make sure that they get to work on time.

"I have tried to make sure that there is sufficient in the programme for the players not to become bored by the usual routines of nets and training and by the time we reach April 1 and the start of our pre-season practice games I hope everyone will feel invigorated and will really be enjoying each other's company," said Byas.

Leeds United manager Kevin Blackwell will give Yorkshire's players a football training session at United's Thorp Arch training ground and on another occasion they will also be under the command of Rhinos'director of rugby, Daryl Powell, who is also on the York City Knights coaching staff, at Kirkstall.

There will be individual coaching from Kevin Sharp and Steve Oldham and Warwickshire's Trevor Penney, one of the best fielders on the first class circuit, has been booked on March 20 to give them fielding instruction at Headingley.

Swimming will once again form part of Yorkshire's preparations and they will also listen to what a psychologist has to say about getting into the right mental frame of mind for winning.

Byas said he had been extremely impressed with the attitude of Yorkshire's players during the winter months when all those who were available had attended the voluntary net sessions at Headingley, including the Saturday morning stints which began at 8am, as well as coming in for one-to-one sessions with either Sharp or Oldham.

New signing David Lucas the left-arm fast bowler from Notts has missed only one net session when he was unable to make it because of bad weather.

Only five Yorkshire players were absent from the opening training session at Headingley -England's Michael Vaughan and Matthew Hoggard who are still resting after the tour of South Africa; Richard Dawson, who is with England 'A' in the United Arab Emirates and Sri Lanka, and the Aussie pair of Phil Jaques and Ian Harvey who will be back at the start of next month.

Although Darren Lehmann scored a recent century for South Australia after missing Australia's one-day series against New Zealand, he has now reported a neck injury which is almost certain to cause him to miss the Test series between the two countries later this month.

If, as is becoming increasingly likely, Lehmann is not chosen for this summer's Ashes series, he is expected to take a well-earned break from cricket and resume his contract with Yorkshire in 2006.

Updated: 09:19 Saturday, March 05, 2005