Yorkshire fans were surprised to see a familiar face in Leicestershire's line-up for the Frizzell County Championship match starting at Scarborough today.

Leicestershire yesterday completed the signing of former Yorkshire left-arm spinner Richard Stemp and registered him in time for the game.

Stemp, 34, came to Yorkshire from Worcestershire in 1993 and went on to take 241 first class wickets before moving to Nottinghamshire in 1999 where he stayed until the end of last season.

Leicestershire swooped for Stemp because they guessed that Yorkshire would be preparing a pitch at North Marine Road to suit spinners Richard Dawson and Andy Gray while they were extremely limited in slow bowlers of their own.

Yorkshire went into the match determined to pull out all the stops and record a third consecutive Championship win.

Buoyed by the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy triumph, the county champions are now concentrating solely on trying to avoid relegation.

It remains a mammoth task and their first objective is to get off the bottom of division one, where they are just half-a-point adrift of Somerset.

But to stand a real chance of making the 'Great Escape' they know they must win their last three matches with a weakened team and the weather expected to deteriorate.

Chris Silverwood is out for the rest of the season with the ankle injury on which he is due an operation shortly and Anthony McGrath was waiting until shortly before the toss to see if his knee problem had cleared up sufficiently to allow him to play.

McGrath did the damage while turning sharply for a possible second run after an overthrow towards the end of the C&G final and he was forced to rest up for the Norwich Union League game against Glamorgan on Monday.

Leicestershire now have Indian paceman Javagal Srinath bowling alongside Malcolm Devon and Phil DeFreitas for the remainder of the season.

Leicestershire are not entirely free of relegation worries themselves but they eased their position last week with an eight-wicket win over Sussex and a good result against Yorkshire would make them safe.

Craig White, who plays only as a batsman because of his side strain, returns for his first Championship match since the Roses game at Headingley in July, and he was likely to open the innings with Vic Craven if Chris Taylor was omitted and made 12th man.

Updated: 11:59 Wednesday, September 04, 2002