To Holland and back as Yorkshire in a fix over fixture list

Yorkshire's director of professional cricket has many times spoken against the madcap nature of a programme that leaves players little time for rest and recuperation.

With teams constantly flogging from one end of the country to another, not to mention flitting back and forth between competitions in a manner that can only reduce standards, Moxon has been at the forefront of calls for a more sensible timetable.

But the present period just about takes the biscuit for Moxon and his men as they include a rare foray into Europe in an already breakneck calendar.

To start at the beginning, Yorkshire travelled 180 miles to their team hotel in rural Gloucestershire on Wednesday in readiness for a Clydesdale Bank 40 League game at Cheltenham the following day.

No sooner had that match ended at 7.30pm than they boarded the team coach bound for Ashford, Kent, a distance of 160 miles.

Yesterday morning, they caught a ferry to France and then undertook a four-hour drive to Rotterdam in readiness for tomorrow's CB 40 game against Holland at Schiedam.

Today, Yorkshire plan to squeeze in some practice at the ground and, directly after tomorrow's fixture, will catch an overnight ferry to Hull.

The players arrive back in Yorkshire on Monday morning and the next day go straight into a County Championship match against Nottinghamshire at Headingley Carnegie.

That game promises to be of immense significance, with both clubs gunning for the Championship crown, but Yorkshire could be forgiven for feeling a tad weary following a European excursion that does them no favours.

"I've said many times that the fixture schedule is crazy and this period is going to be a difficult one for us," said Moxon.

"It's nice for the lads to play in Holland, but it's certainly not ideal preparation for a very important game against Nottinghamshire on Tuesday.

"All you can do in a situation like this is get on with it and try to go about your work as professionally as possible.

"Hopefully, the lads will get a good night's sleep on the ferry back from Holland, but it's not the best state of affairs before a key Championship game."

Tomorrow's fixture, which starts at 10am UK time, has assumed greater significance following Yorkshire's 65-run defeat to Gloucestershire, which saw them deliver one of their poorest performances of the season.

Yorkshire's bowling was less than impressive as Gloucestershire racked up 294-6 in 40 overs, the visitors replying with 229.

It was Yorkshire's first defeat in the CB competition after five successive wins had taken them top of the table.

They have beaten Holland at Headingley, but Moxon is expecting a difficult challenge.

"Holland are no mugs," he stressed. "We saw at Headingley that they're a decent team and we can't fall into the trap of thinking it's an easy match.

"We didn't play well against Gloucestershire and it's important we try to bounce back with a win.

"But it's the sort of game that's a potential banana skin and we'll have to be at our best to beat a competitive Dutch side."

Although defeat at Cheltenham was a hefty blow, with Gloucestershire drawing level with Yorkshire at the top of Group B, Moxon's players are still on course to lead the club to their first Lord's final since 2002.

Yorkshire have six group games to play and have served up some generally impressive 40-over cricket this summer.

"The players are very keen to get to a Lord's final," insisted Moxon.

"We'll probably need to win at least nine of our 12 group games to reach the semi-finals, but we're well capable of achieving that goal."

Yorkshire squad versus Holland (from): Gale (captain), Rudolph, Lyth, McGrath, Bairstow, Rashid, Bresnan, Pyrah, Wainwright, Best, Patterson, Hodgson, Sanderson, Brophy.

England discards Samit Patel and Chris Read shared an unbroken stand of 148 to keep Nottinghamshire afloat on day two of their LV County Championship match against Division One title rivals Somerset at Taunton.

Somerset ended their first innings with 517 thanks to Craig Kieswetter (88) and Peter Trego (54) and looked likely to pile the pressure on their opponents.

Alex Hales and Mark Wagh both fell cheaply before another spurt of three wickets reduced Nottinghamshire to 130-5. But that brought Patel (92 not out) and Read (75no) together, with the pair sharing 31 boundaries and two sixes to take the score to 278-5.