A career-best 207 from Matthew Wood and a maiden century from Andy Gray helped to give Yorkshire a first innings lead of 237 at Taunton yesterday before Steve Kirby tore into Somerset for the second time in the match.

Kirby, who grabbed five wickets in the first innings, collected another four but he was denied the opportunity for further successes because rain and bad light came to Somerset's aid with 11 overs remaining when they stood on 213-6, still 24 runs in arrears.

Yorkshire would almost certainly have gone on to claim the extra half hour if the weather had been fine and had they still needed it, the forecast for today being poor enough for them to want to get the match over and done with a soon as possible.

It is a long time since Yorkshire batted with such confidence as they did in piling up 512 and they were given just the right start on Saturday when Wood and Stephen Fleming put on 165 for the first wicket, the New Zealand captain making 98 on his county debut before being caught on the boundary edge attempting to reach his century with a six.

Wood, who batted throughout the day and gave only one chance when he was put down at slip on 148, resumed yesterday with Yorkshire on 409-6 and eager to increase their lead of 134.

But before Wood could add to his score he edged a drive at Simon Francis and was caught low down at first slip by Peter Bowler, his sparkling innings spanning exactly 300 balls and containing seven boundaries.

Wood overtook the previous highest score by a Yorkshire batsman in Somerset - 201 by Wilfred Rhodes on the same ground in 1905 - but fell just short of the best against the county of 213 by Herbert Sutcliffe at Dewsbury in 1924.

Gray, preferred for this game to fellow off-spinner Richard Dawson, had helped Wood put on 116 for the seventh wicket and he dominated the crease once his captain was out with some gloriously timed strokes, many of them zipping through the covers and into the boundary boards.

With spirited support from Chris Silverwood, Gray helped himself to four boundaries in five balls from Aaron Laraman and soon raced past his previous best of 74 not out against Leicestershire at Scarborough last year.

The pair had dashed up 70 in 12 overs when Silverwood's leg stump was uprooted by Steffan Jones but Ryan Sidebottom lasted long enough for Gray to complete a faultless century off 144 balls with 18 fours. He went on to be last out for 104, driving Simon Francis to mid-off.

Somerset openers Peter Bowler and Matthew Wood survived six overs until lunch but the first ball of the afternoon saw Wood cut Silverwood straight to Craig White at backward point.

Bowler and James Bryant settled into an 87 stand in 26 overs and it took a brilliant catch by Yuvraj at second slip to part the pair, the Indian diving to his left to cling on to Bowler's fast edge off Kirby after he had made 58 from 100 balls with 11 fours.

Yuvraj came on to bowl his left-arm spin and his eighth delivery in Championship cricket had Bryant caught at slip by Fleming at the second attempt. After further resistance from Jamie Cox and Michael Burns, Kirby wrecked Somerset's hopes of a substantial recovery by grabbing three wickets in 13 balls at a cost of six runs.

Burns cut to White at point, Cox was lbw moving forward to bring Kirby his 100th first-class wicket for Yorkshire and Rob Turner deflected a ball to Yuvraj at second slip.

Updated: 11:28 Monday, June 30, 2003