David Warner on Yorkshire Cricket

Matthew Wood extended his astonishing sequence of Headingley scores from the start of his first class career by hitting a flawless and unbeaten century to leave Yorkshire in a healthy position at the end of a weather-shortened day yesterday.

The 21-year-old Huddersfield batsman made his first class debut on the ground in the four-day 'friendly' against Lancashire at the start of last season when he announced himself with a fine innings of 81.

Wood had to wait until the start of this season for his next game and in four championship appearances at Headingley he has now plundered two centuries and two half centuries to give him an unparalleled record of success for a beginner.

His achievements on the Test ground do not end there because in each of the four championship games he has been involved in three-figure partnerships for the third wicket - three with captain David Byas and the latest effort with Michael Vaughan who scored a handsome 86 and was unfortunate to miss out on a century himself.

Wood and Vaughan between them were largely responsible for Yorkshire recuperating well after their Benson and Hedges Cup debacle by Essex on Tuesday and they closed on a spirited 242 for three off 80 overs with Wood still there on 103.

Yorkshire won the toss but play could not begin until after an early lunch because of a wet ground and 24 overs of the day had been lost when it was dry enough for Anthony McGrath and Vaughan to open the innings.

It was like old times with Peter Hartley back in action on a Yorkshire home ground, but this time with the opposition and it took him only until his third over to make a point or two by dismissing McGrath who chopped the ball into his stumps with his feet a long way from his bat.

Byas began quietly but with the score on 51 he played John Stephenson low to square leg where Derek Kenway held a good catch and it need steady batting for a while from Vaughan and Wood to prevent the collapse that Yorkshire dreaded without unwell Australian Darren Lehmann in the side.

Vaughan completed his half-century with an all run-four off West Indian paceman Nixon McLean and Wood started to open out by hammering him to the cover boundary before reaching his 50 with an immaculate shot off his legs.

The stand was worth 122 in 41 overs when Vaughan was unfortunate to be out after taking 160 balls over his fourth consecutive first class score of 59 or more. He got into a tangle outside legstump against spinner Shaun Udal and was unable to avoid nicking a poor ball to wicketkeeper Adrian Aymes.

From then on it was all Wood who turned on a glorious one-man exhibition while Bradley Parker watched from the other end.

A string of six dazzling boundaries came off eight balls, two off John Stephenson and then four in an over against McLean, all shots of the highest quality and perfectly executed.

Wood made it seven consecutive boundary shots with another four at McLean's expense and he had gathered in the first 33 runs of the partnership before Parker got off the mark.

It was magical stuff to watch and Wood eased his way through the 90s to complete his century with three overs of the day remaining by cutting Udal for three. He had faced 206 balls and stroked 16 boundaries, every one of which was a little gem.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.