Yorkshire CCC held up by the weather and the Price brothers

We will have to wait another three-to-four weeks, apparently, to find out the final decision of the Cricket Discipline Commission (CDC) as it ponders the charges brought by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).

Here at Headingley, where the grey skies served as a perfect metaphor in this week of gloom for the game in general, following the publication of the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (ICEC) report in addition to the Yorkshire situation, the club’s hopes were further hit by the weather and some stubborn resistance from Gloucestershire, who are without a win in this season’s Championship.

At the end of a day on which rain and bad light permitted just 38 overs, with the action not starting until 2.15pm, Gloucestershire moved from 232-5 to 421-8 in reply to Yorkshire’s 550-9 declared, the game apparently moving towards the annals of obscurity barring some exciting developments on the final day.

Miles Hammond, the Gloucestershire left-hander, has provided much of the excitement so far, displaying not so much a tendency to skip down the track and hit the spinners over the top for six as a pathological need to do so.

This day was only one ball old when Hammond could resist the urge no longer as Dan Moriarty suffered a fate to which he had been subjected several times on the second evening, Hammond finding The Howard Stand with six No 7.

This time the fireworks were short-lived, Moriarty getting his man - and his fourth wicket on debut on loan from Surrey - when Hammond picked out Dom Leech at long-on.

Hammond hit 92 from 104 balls with five fours to go with the magnificent seven sixes, leaving Gloucestershire 246-6 beneath the floodlights.

Ollie Price, who resumed on one, also hit Moriarty for a straight six before bad light caused a further delay 17 overs in.

Twenty-five minutes later they were back out again, Gloucestershire having avoided the prospect of being asked to follow-on, and Price advancing to a fifty from 82 balls.

In tandem with his brother, Tom, the younger Price played some handsome shots and Yorkshire lost their way rather, failing to control the flow of runs.

It has been a frustrating debut so far for Mark Steketee, the Australian overseas player, who has figures of 0-82 from 17 overs.

It took the introduction of George Hill to break the seventh-wicket partnership, Tom Price falling for 59 from his 95th-ball faced when he attempted to repeat a pull shot for six and was bowled.

The Prices added 162 off 195 balls, Gloucestershire’s highest seventh-wicket stand against Yorkshire in first-class cricket, beating – as you’ll know without checking – the 122 by Gilbert Jessop and Francis Bateman-Champain at Bradford in 1900, a game in which Jessop scored a hundred before lunch in both innings. Yikes.

After Zafar Gohar was adjudged caught behind off Leech, a decision with which he evidently disagreed as he tried to take evasive action, Ollie Price ended the day with thoughts of a hundred of his own - a maiden one.

The 22-year-old went to his mattress on 97 from 140 balls with 14 fours and a six.

Sweet dreams, young fella...