A crowd of almost 4000 came to Headingley on Bank Holiday Monday to witness Yorkshire's worst ever one-day score of 54 all out. The previous lowest had been 56 against Warwickshire in 1995.


Essex who were put into bat by the home side started quickly and when Darren Gough broke down the bowling attack was somewhat depleted. Anthony McGrath took the wickets of both openers, but young fast-bowler Tim Bresnan was the only other wicket taker ending with figures of 3-29.


The Phoenix Innings never got off the ground, opener Lumb was out for just 4, followed quickly by Wood and McGrath making 3 and 0 respectively. From there the rest soon followed and at one stage Yorkshire were 24-7. Some courageous batting from Ryan Sidebottom added 17 to the total but it wasn't any where near enough to avoid the humiliation of a team which had made such an emphatic start to 2003.