Yorkshire completed victory over Bradford-Leeds Universities' Centre of Excellence by an innings and 61 runs at Headingley yesterday but the big win was not as satisfactory as a first glance at the scorebook might suggest.

Although there was never any doubt that the students would be heavily beaten, the margin would have been much greater if Yorkshire's bowling had always been as sharp as they would have liked.

Steven Kirby was occasionally erratic but the main offender was Gavin Hamilton who was so off-target as to give real cause for concern.

On the second evening, Hamilton sent down three wides and three no-balls in the final over of the day and in two overs early yesterday he bowled another four wides before being temporarily removed from the attack.

Hamilton at times looked quite distraught and a match analysis of one wicket for 74 against such youthful opponents will not have done anything to boost the confidence of this usually cheerful all-rounder.

Fortunately for Yorkshire, Chris Silverwood bowled well in both innings and Ryan Sidebottom hit the mark second time around to take three for 22.

But Yorkshire will be most pleased that Gary Fellows bowled a devastating spell just before lunch in which he picked up four wickets in 12 balls at a cost of three runs.

The Universities' side had every reason to feel proud of their achievement of taking a game into its third day for the first time in their last four outings and coach Kevin Sharp, the former Yorkshire batting ace, will be satisfied with the amount of effort which everyone put into their game.

Captain Chris Elstub bowled well enough to suggest he will be a contender for a Yorkshire place when the Universities' season ends in mid-June and the one batsman of class in their line-up was Durham Academy's Hiran Marambe who top scored in each innings with 33 and 35 respectively.

He held things together yesterday for 94 deliveries off which he struck two boundaries before driving to mid-on during Fellows' lethal blast.

Pace bowler Joe Grant, who last season plied his trade with Hunters the estate agent York and District League side Dunnington, was in sparkling form for his new county Essex against Cambridge University.

After taking 1 for 35 in the first innings Grant knocked the stuffing out of the students' second knock. He grabbed the first four wickets and then added another scalp as Cambridge perished on 218 for Essex to win by 258 runs.

Updated: 12:20 Tuesday, April 23, 2002