A breather in the Championship programme has given Yorkshire the opportunity to stand back and try to work out why their season has gone so disastrously wrong after a dazzling start which saw them beat Northamptonshire by the record margin of an innings and 343 runs.

Injuries and Test calls have played their part with the unexpected return to Australia of Matthew Elliott and the surprise loss of captain Anthony McGrath to England's ranks both having an effect.

But the Championship averages clearly show that too many players have simply under-achieved and that only three of the regulars have done enough to feel that they merit their place in the side.

Michael Lumb has rarely made an error with the bat while Ryan Sidebottom and Chris Silverwood have taken 37 wickets between them - which is only three fewer than the 11 other bowlers put together.

Without any doubt, Lumb is the success story of the season so far and his 480 runs from six matches leave him top of the batting averages with a healthy 68.57 which is the sort of figure Yorkshire had come to expect from Darren Lehmann.

Trailing in Lumb's wake with 341 runs is Matthew Wood followed by Richard Blakey with 307, but the pair have made most of their runs in considerably easier circumstances than the 23-year-old left-hander.

Blakey's total includes his epic 223 not out against the flagging Northamptonshire attack at Headingley but take that figure out and he is left with 84 runs from his next seven innings.

Likewise, Wood plundered 157 in the Northants debacle and he also hit an unbeaten 73 against Glamorgan when Yorkshire were doing nothing more than batting out time until the rain affected contest meandered to a draw.

McGrath made a modest 166 runs before becoming an England player, overseas signing Yuvraj Singh has yet to acclimatise to English conditions and Gary Fellows was such a disappointment in the middle order that he will find it difficult to regain his place after 114 runs in six innings.

The left-arm Sidebottom tops the bowling averages with each of his 18 victims costing exactly 18 runs but seven of his wickets came in the first innings against Derbyshire when his return of 7-97 was easily Yorkshire's best by any bowler this time.

Silverwood's reward for greater consistency has been one more wicket than Sidebottom.

The pair of them received excellent support from Darren Gough either side of him being out with a strained hamstring but the rest of the fast bowlers have done little to excite and there remains a worrying lack of wickets from senior off-spinner Richard Dawson, whose eight victims in 109 overs have come at a cost of 44 runs each.

Updated: 10:44 Saturday, June 14, 2003