Doncaster-born Simon Widdup made his first class debut for Championship leaders Yorkshire today in the big Roses showdown at Old Trafford - and the 22-year-old opener was off the mark first ball after Yorkshire drew first blood by winning the toss.

But they soon lost skipper David Byas who was caught at second slip with the total on 12.

Widdup took the place of Michael Vaughan who is one of four Yorkshire players involved in the Test match at Lord's.

Widdup became the first Yorkshire player to make a Championship debut in a Roses game since Vaughan at Old Trafford in 1993.

With the pitch expected to take spin, Yorkshire brought in left-armer Ian Fisher for his first game of the season and with Anthony McGrath also making his seasonal debut in the Championship, there was no room in the side for either Gavin Hamilton or Gary Fellows.

Skipton-born Glen Chapple bowled the opening over and after Byas had got off the mark with a single to long leg, Widdup turned his first ball on the on-side and ran one.Mike Smethurst shared the new ball and a loose delivery went for four byes outside Byas's off-stump but it was a generally slow start and after four overs Yorkshire were 11 without loss.

One run later, however, Byas nudged an away swinger from Chapple to Graham Lloyd at second slip to bring in Richard Blakey.

Yorkshire approached their most important Roses match in years with a 13 point leader and a game in hand over second placed Leicestershire, but Lancashire are only 16 points adrift of the top.