RYAN Sidebottom continued his recent dynamic form by claiming five wickets for 40 runs as Yorkshire despatched County Champions Surrey for 226 at The Oval.

The left-arm swing bowler has now gathered up 21 Championship wickets in the last six innings and he has taken them at an incredible average of 8.76 runs apiece.

Even more remarkably, the sequence includes the Roses match at Old Trafford where Sidebottom did not pick up a wicket in either innings, but he took 11 for 43 against Kent and had a five wicket haul in the last game against Durham.

Yorkshire need to win this match to replace Surrey at the top of the table and they got off on the right foot by dismissing their opponents fairly cheaply after they had chosen to bat first on a good pitch.

Sidebottom received outstanding support from Matthew Hoggard who finished with four for 70 and the other wicket fell to Chris Silverwood.

It would have been an even better effort by Yorkshire, however, if Anthony McGrath had not dropped Adam Hollioake off Silverwood when only 11, the Surrey captain going on to top score with 48.

And they also let Surrey off the hook for a while when Martin Bicknell and Ian Salisbury came together at 148 for seven and put on 73 together in 26 overs to post the highest stand of the innings.

Hoggard struck the first blow by having Mark Butcher caught down the legside by Richard Blakey but Ian Ward and Nadeem Shahid then batted freely to take the score to 66 when Sidebottom joined the attack and removed Shahid's off-stump with a slanting yorker.

Ward batted all morning for 26 but added only two after lunch before Hoggard trapped him lbw and Yorkshire would have been in even greater control had McGrath not put down Adam Hollioake's hook to long leg.

Sidebottom produced one of the best balls of the day to surprise Alistair Brown with extra bounce for Byas to take the catch at second slip and when Ben Hollioake gently flicked the same bowler to square leg Surrey were 127 for five.

Jonathan Batty was lbw not offering a stroke at Hoggard and Adam Hollioake was caught behind off Sidebottom to miss out on his half-century. Once Sidebottom broke the stubborn eighth wicket stand by getting Bicknell lbw, Surrey soon folded.

Yorkshire lost skipper David Byas to the final ball of the day, closing on 33 for one.

ppp Healthcare County Championship

Division One

(Day 2 of 4)

Surrey v Yorkshire

at The Foster's Oval

Surrey First Innings

Butcher c Blakey b Hoggard 5

Ward lbw b Hoggard 28

Shahid b Sidebottom 36

Hollioake c Blakey b Sidebottom 48

Brown c Byas b Silverwood 7

Hollioake c Fellows b Sidebottom 8

Batty lbw b Hoggard 1

Bicknell lbw b Sidebottom 45

Salisbury not out 29

Mushtaq b Sidebottom 1

Greenidge b Hoggard 3

Extras b5 lb8 nb2 15

Total (81.5 overs) 226

Fall: 1-5 2-66 3-82 4-105 5-127 6-144 7-148 8-221 9-223

Bowling: Silverwood 16-5-64-1 Hoggard 21.5-3-70-4 Sidebottom 20-8-40-5 Fellows 12-2-16-0 Middlebrook 8-1-19-0 Lehmann 2-2-0-0 Vaughan 2-1-4-0

Yorkshire First Innings

Byas c A J Hollioake b Salisbury ...................9

Vaughan not out 21

Extras lb1 nb2 3

Total 1 wkt (19.5 overs) 33

Fall: 1-33

Overnight bowling: Bicknell 7-3-5-0 Greenidge 6-3-18-0 B C Hollioake 2-1-1-0 Mushtaq 3-1-7-0 Salisbury 1.5-0-1-1