York's visit to Yorkshire Academy yesterday suffered the same fate as last season, with the fixture being deferred to Sunday because of a Test match at Headingley when all the other Yorkshire ECB Premier League Saturday fixtures were fulfilled.

The contest was interestingly poised to go either way when, after a couple of interruptions, persistent heavy rain caused the match to be abandoned.

York asked the Academy to bat first and gained an early success when Rob Flack bowled Chris Batchelor.

But then Whitby-based Scarborough player Adam Lyth batted fluently to earn a fifty containing 11 fours before the introduction of Riley O'Neill trapped him in front.

Flack had already grabbed two more victims and O'Neill continued to make inroads, inducing catches with his flighted off spin to earn himself his second five wicket haul of the month.

With six overs remaining a third rain interruption finally caused the Umpires to abandon a match which would have seen York face up to promising legspinners, Mark Lawson and Adil Rashid plus the talented Driffield off-spinner Simon Tennant.

Yorkshire Academy: H Rashid Ibw b Flack, C Batchelor b Flack 0, A Lyth Ibw b O'Neill 58, P Holdsworth b Flack 0, A Rashid st Durham b How 13, M Lawson ct J Pringle b O'Neill 18, C Gilbert ct J Pringle b O'Neill 5, H Anderson c&b O'Neill 3, D Conway b O'Neill 22, S Tennant not out 3, L Ineson not out 2, Extras 30, Total 172 for 9 wkts (49overs).

York bowling: R Flack 12-4-41-3, R Carroll 4-0-19-0, D Broadbent 4-0-23-0, G How 16-3-48-1, R O'Neill 13-5-24-5.

Updated: 08:05 Tuesday, June 01, 2004