Matthew Hoggard last night made the long drive south west to join up with his Yorkshire team-mates in Taunton after being discarded from the England camp at Old Trafford.

It turned into a long day for Hoggard who netted at Old Trafford before driving to Leeds for a kidney X-ray and it was not until he had returned to Manchester that he was told by England that he was being released.

Yorkshire were today aiming to complete their first double of the season when they took on Somerset as the battle for the Championship hotted up.

In their last but one fixture, Yorkshire gained a handsome victory by an innings and six runs over Somerset at Scarborough and it is vitally important that they come out on top again if they are to maintain their strong challenge for the title.

As on the first occasion, Somerset are without both Andy Caddick and Marcus Trescothick while Yorkshire are missing their three Test players in Darren Gough, Michael Vaughan and Craig White.

Skipper David Byas today paid tribute to 19-year-old seamer Chris Elstub who had an excellent Roses match.

"Chris did a monumental job against Lancashire and to dismiss batsmen of the calibre of Michael Atherton, Andy Flintoff and Neil Fairbrother was a marvellous achievement," said Byas.

"He is still very much a youngster and tires fairly quickly but he knows what he's doing and has proved to be a tremendous asset.

"He's earned the right to play for us whenever Matthew Hoggard is out of the side or whenever we are a senior bowler light for any other reason."

Today's game has been eagerly awaited by 21-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman Simon Guy who is making his Championship debut following the axing of Richard Blakey who has been dropped for the first time in his long career, despite being the country's leading wicketkeeper this season.

Blakey has been desperately short on runs, however, and he's been left to regain his form in the second team, but if Guy does well at Taunton he may hold on to his place for the remainder of the campaign.

Yorkshire entered the match just three points behind leaders Surrey who today play third-placed Lancashire at The Oval in a game which Byas is tipping Lancashire to win.

But the captain's main thoughts today were on beating Somerset who are fourth in the table and will be back in the frame themselves if they beat Yorkshire.