CENTURION Rich Pyrah believes the condition of the pitch for the ongoing three-day friendly against Loughborough University at Headingley should be the blueprint for the rest of the summer.

Yorkshire captain Andrew Gale said recently that head groundsman Andy Fogarty would be using this match as an experiment to find the right formula for preparing a pitch that will provide the best chance of gaining results in the County Championship.

And Pyrah believes he has found it: “We should have that kind of surface for all our Championship matches,” he said. “It’s a good, result wicket.

“It was tough out there because it was swinging around and seaming. They bowled well early on in the match, and it was hard work. The pitch has a bit of pace in it, and when you hit the pitch it seams around.

“Obviously with the cloud cover too, it was swinging around quite a lot.”

Pyrah recorded a magnificent career best 134 not out as Yorkshire dominated a rain-affected second day against the students.

In gloomy conditions, the 27 year-old all-rounder peppered the empty West Stand as he hit five sixes in his 175-ball innings, which also included 12 boundary fours.

Yorkshire declared at lunch having amassed an imposing 348-5 from 91 overs, with Gerard Brophy adding 89 off 167 balls against a Loughborough attack whose best bowlers were left-arm seamer Rob Taylor and former Yorkshire Academy leg-spinner Alex Welsh.

The visitors, having started well on the first day, lost confidence as Pyrah went on the offensive. He hit a straight maximum off the spin of Charl Malan before pulling three more prior to the declaration.

He shared a fourth wicket partnership of 164 inside 41 overs with Brophy, who drove Malan to Harveer Gandam at cover.

Pyrah, whose only previous first-class century came in the same fixture at Headingley three years ago, also shared an entertaining 86 inside 16 overs for the fifth wicket with fellow all-rounder Lee Hodgson (33).

Yorkshire’s bowlers then had no trouble in restricting the visitors to 53-1 in the 27th over of their reply before rain meant no play was possible after tea.

The county’s opening pair of bowling coach John Blain and 18 year-old debutant Moin Ashraf are separated by 13 years and a day, and they bowled nine maidens between them in 14 overs.

But Ben Sanderson was the only wicket-taker when he had Rhodri Evans caught behind by Brophy in the 20th over.