YORKSHIRE have got such deep reserves of fast bowlers that for the moment at least they do not have to worry where the next one is coming from - apart that is from next week at Leicester when they look like being badly hit by a combination of Test calls and injuries.

And although some of their senior batsmen have not always found top form this season, several youngsters have come to the fore and shown that they are not out of their depth in first class cricket.

But the area in which the future still looks uncertain for Yorkshire is in the spin bowling department where both left-armer Ian Fisher and off-spinner James Middlebrook are currently fighting it out between them for a regular place.

Last season Fisher got most of the chances because Middlebrook was put out of action early on with a broken finger.

This summer, things went Middlebrook's way at the start of the season but recently Fisher has been first choice.

It's difficult to predict which one will come out on top because both are also pretty useful with the bat, Fisher making a career-best 68 not out against Somerset at Taunton last week.

The problem is that neither has had much opportunity to advance his bowling in Championship games at Headingley, where spinners generally have a hard time of it, and Yorkshire are not much further forward in knowing if either of them will really make the grade.

If not, then off-spinner James Dawson and left-armer Chris Ellison, both currently at Exeter University, are the next youngsters in line to be given a try at senior level.

But in these times of financial restraints and cut-backs, one must question whether Yorkshire will go on paying out wages to four spin bowlers when only one is likely to make it into the side in most matches.

It is an awful lot of money and effort if none of them really makes the grade.

One of the best English-born spinners in the game at present is Gary Keedy and Yorkshire may now be regretting his transfer to Lancashire at the end of the 1994 season after only one game for his native county.

Yorkshire had signed Richard Stemp from Worcestershire at the beginning of that summer as a long term replacement for Phil Carrick, who was nearing the end of his career, and Keedy was naturally concerned that he was being squeezed out.

Now, however, he is one of three spinners who enjoy Old Trafford's more accommodating surfaces - the other two being Chris Schofield and Gary Yates - and in the first of this season's Roses matches he helped Lancashire wallop Yorkshire by picking up seven wickets.

If Yorkshire had a top class spinner in their side they would be much better balanced and would not have to worry so much about visits to Old Trafford and the Oval. They would also feel easier about making Headingley less seamer friendly.

Middlebrook or Fisher or one of the younger pair may still go on to make a name for themselves - unless Yorkshire decide at the end of this season to search the market for a player of proven ability.