WE’VE only had two Championship matches this season, but they’ve been played on completely different pitches.

This fine Easter weekend was our first home Championship match of the summer, against my former employees Northamptonshire.

It was a game we won by an innings and 120 runs and it was a good one personally.

I took my top figures for Yorkshire of 5-36 and with 3-76 in the second innings it was the best match return of my first-class career.

It all came against my old pals, who are still good friends.

But you put friendship aside in the heat of battle once you cross the white line and I was certainly no less aggressive than normal.

It also helped that I slogged a few runs and ended up 37 not out, much to the amusement of my teammates with my refined stroke play.

Monday afternoon’s play got a little lively with the added atmosphere of the Leeds Rhinos rugby league side also playing at Headingley.

It meant had a few extra supporters in the ground, together with the noise of 15,000 people from the other side of the ground.

Not a bad day out for Yorkshire sports badgers!

Our opening fixture was down in Taunton versus the cider county of Somerset.

We knew it would be a tough game because Taunton’s pitch is historically a batting paradise as it’s slow and flat with short straight boundaries.

It’s a good one to get out of the way, though, as it will only get flatter as the summer goes on!

Judging on last week’s pitch it could be a run fest there this summer.

I for one would be quite happy if I never had to bowl on a wicket like that again!

It was a rather benign surface, and if I played for Somerset or had to play on decks like that regularly my career would be a few years shorter.

I bowled pretty well and took 1-90!

As it happened we batted positively with Adil Rashid compiling an entertaining century and we were able to see out the game as a draw.

Moving on to the big story of the last week, I think Peter Moores is a good choice to be England’s new coach.

Although he has had the job before and it didn’t work out, it’s a new era of cricket and you would hope that Mooresy would have learnt from previous mistakes.

I have met him one-on-one a few times and find him an interesting guy.

Oxford Mail:

  • I think Peter Moores is a good choice for England

I was thinking hard about joining Lancashire where he was head coach before I eventually joined Yorkshire.

Working with Mooresy was a very appealing factor as he gets the best out of you and isn’t afraid of new methods.

Good luck to him!

He found the time to kindly reply to my congratulatory text.

I'm glad Paul Farbrace has been given the assistant’s job as he is just a top coach and man manager, along with being a top man and someone who I owe a fair amount to since my time at Yorkshire.