Yorkshire receive CricInfo Championship trophy

New CricInfo County Champions Yorkshire received the Lord's Taverners Trophy from CricInfo managing director Peter Griffiths during the lunch interval on the first day of their last match of the season against Essex at Scarborough today.

Yorkshire fans swarmed round the presentation area in front of the pavilion to watch skipper David Byas be handed the trophy by Mr Griffiths.

Also attending the ceremony were CricInfo's head of marketing, Andrew Hall; Yorkshire president, Robin Smith; Yorkshire chairman, Keith Moss: England and Wales director of cricket operations John Carr, and the Mayor of Scarborough, Councillor Lucy Haycock.

Mr Carr congratulated Yorkshire on behalf of the ECB and said that their winning the title was all the more remarkable because they had been supplying so many players to the England set-up.

He also thanked CricInfo for their generous support of the competition.

Mr Griffiths said it gave him great pleasure to hand over the trophy to David Byas following Yorkshire's first Championship win in 33 years.

The presentation was watched from the club balcony by Yorkshire's last two Championship-winning captains, Vic Wilson and Brian Close.

After the trophy had been handed over, Yorkshire batsman Matthew Wood received his first team cap from Byas and second team caps were awarded to Chris Taylor and Steven Kirby.

It started to rain during the ceremony and Essex were unable to resume on their lunchtime score of 99 for three after winning the toss, two of the wickets going down to off-spinner Richard Dawson.

Flags flew at half mast at North Marine Road as a mark of respect for events in America and the teams lined up on the field for a minute's silence before play began.

There was an early breakthrough for Yorkshire as their former all-rounder Paul Grayson was bowled by Matthew Hoggard in the fourth over but Darren Robinson and Richard Clinton revived Essex with a 61 stand for the second wicket.

Robinson was dropped by Matthew Wood at second slip off Hoggard with the score on 75, but two runs later the opener attempted to sweep Dawson and was caught at silly point by Chris Taylor.

Mark Pettini, who was making his first-class debut for Essex along with Joe Grant and Zoheb Sharif, had made just a single when he pushed forward at Dawson and was caught at slip by David Byas.

Ronnie Irani joined the left-handed Clinton and the pair were still together at lunch, Clinton having been in 32 overs for his 33.