YOUNG blood Nick Thornicroft showed star quality at Headingley yesterday but could not stop Yorkshire Phoenix losing by three wickets to Gloucestershire Gladiators on the final day of the season.

Yorkshire knew they were relegated even before the game began but at least they had the small consolation of keeping off the bottom of the Division One table.

Otley-born left-handed opener Joe Sayers, 20, marked his first team debut with a splendid innings of 62 out of a modest Phoenix total of 213-7 and then 18-year-old paceman Thornicroft, from Sheriff Hutton, grabbed career-best figures of 5-42 in his only senior appearance of the season.

At one stage in his opening spell, former Easingwold School pupil Thornicroft claimed three wickets in seven balls to have Gloucestershire tottering on 37 for four but Matt Windows went on to slam an unbeaten 91 from 118 deliveries with 11 boundaries to see his side home with five balls to spare.

Anthony McGrath stepped down from the match and handed the captaincy to Matthew Wood as Yorkshire gave youth a chance and also making his competition debut was batsman Chris Taylor, who hit a patient 28 and helped Sayers add 88 in 20 overs after Craig White had cracked two sixes in his opening stand of 42 with Sayers.

The Oxford University and England Under-19s left-hander took 14 balls to get off the mark but he quickly grew in confidence with some fine strokes on either side of the wicket and by the time he chased a wide one from off-spinner Martyn Ball to give a catch to cover point he had faced 105 deliveries and hit seven fours and a six.

It was Ball who ran through Yorkshire's batting with career-best figures of 5-33, which beat his previous best, also against Yorkshire, of five for 44 at Cheltenham in 1999.

Chris Silverwood went unrewarded for a fine opening spell for Yorkshire but his new-ball partner Thornicroft was in dynamic form from the other end, getting Craig Spearman taken at first slip in his first over and later dismissing Tim Hancock and South African Jonty Rhodes within three balls before sending back Phil Weston to give him four wickets in his opening burst.

Thornicroft later returned to bowl Mark Hardinges with an inswinging yorker but by then Windows and Alex Gidman (48) had put on 111 in 24 overs to give runners-up Gloucestershire a firm grip on the game which they never relinquished.

Updated: 11:12 Monday, September 22, 2003