DARREN Gough looks set to play for Yorkshire in their opening County Championship match against Northamptonshire at Headingley on Good Friday.

He hit the comeback trail with some impressive bursts of bowling in the Yorkshire XI's two-day friendly with Bradford-Leeds Universities' Centre of Excellence.

The England pace ace gave every indication that he is making a full recovery from the knee problems which have plagued him for the past 18 months and providing he suffers no reaction seems likely to step back in to competitive action next week.

Yorkshire bowling coach Arnie Sidebottom, who carefully monitored Gough's progress, said: "I was very pleased with the way Darren performed. It was an excellent work-out but he must be persuaded to take things one step at a time and not overdo it."

Captaining the side, Gough brought himself straight into the action at Headingley yesterday with five overs from the Kirkstall Lane end after Leeds-Bradford had won the toss, and he struck in his third over by trapping former Yorkshire Academy and ex-Northants and Glamorgan wicketkeeper-batsman Ismail Dawood lbw.

Bowling within himself on a slow pitch, Gough emerged from his first spell with figures of 5-2-12-1 and after two further short stints later in the day his final figures were 12-3-31-2.

Bradford-born Tabassum Bhatti, another Yorkshire Academy product, survived Gough's opening blast and batted patiently for 19 in 27 overs before losing his off-stump to Scarborough-based all-rounder Chris Gilbert.

Bowled out for 125, the Universities went straight in again and reached 119-2 at the close, Dawood slamming 58 off 53 balls with seven fours, the arrangement being that Yorkshire would be left with 100 overs today in which to make 245 to win.

Former Yorkshire fast bowler Peter Hartley, who has this season joined the first-class umpires' list, shared umpiring duties with another former Yorkshire player, Richard Kettleborough.

Yorkshire's new captain, Anthony McGrath, is only likely to bowl this season if he feels it is necessary.

He made a big impact last season with his vastly improved medium-paced bowling which brought him 18 wickets in the Championship and nine in one-day cricket, but he is hoping he won't have to call upon himself too regularly this time.

"If we have a full complement of seam bowlers I should not be required too much but last year injuries and Test calls meant the part-time bowlers had to help out a lot," he said. "I am still working on my bowling and will not hesitate to bring myself on but in the Championship at least I hope I will not be needed too often."

Meanwhile, Yorkshire's Management Board have appointed four business people to the new eight-strong members' committee. They are Carole Rymer from Hull, Nigel Adams from York, who is a prospective European MP for North Yorkshire, Ian Townsend from Sheffield, and Michael Ziff, from Leeds, who is chairman of the Bradford-based shoe group Stylo.

Yorkshire president, Robin Smith, said the committee's first meeting would be next Wednesday and Ziff was expected to be elected chairman.

"All four appointees have got strong business connections around the county and it is most important that we have got people who can drum up support for marketing, sponsorship and membership," said Smith.

Yorkshire chief executive Colin Graves will attend all meetings of the committee whose elected members are Simon Parsons, Tony Vann, Sid Fielden and Tony Cawdry.

Updated: 11:28 Wednesday, April 09, 2003