Warwickshire 270-4 Yorkshire: Warwickshire enjoy the benefits of Westwood’s grit and graft

Warwickshire finished second to Yorkshire in the 2014 County Championship but were thrashed by an innings both at Headingley and Edgbaston, which might be said to reflect the distance they need to make up if they are to mount a title challenge this year.

This time, though, against a Yorkshire attack that includes a 17-year-old seamer making only his second first-class appearance and a 37-year-old off-spinner summoned out of semi-retirement, they have an opportunity to turn the tables.

It is an opportunity most firmly grasped so far by Ian Westwood, their opening batsman and former captain, who missed both of last year’s defeats through injury.

Westwood, who was 11 when he first represented Warwickshire in age-group cricket, has been granted a benefit this year, rewarded for long service in the way that benefits were originally intended. He would see a successful and injury-free season as an appropriate way to signal his appreciation.

This 151 not out was an excellent start, the keystone around which Warwickshire recovered from the loss of their present captain, Varun Chopra, to the third ball of the match. They ground their way to 270 for 4 on a day when the dictionary of cricket euphemisms can offer such terms as “attritional” to cover the fact that it did not exactly set the pulse racing.

That is not to say that it should be decried. Yorkshire’s bowlers toiled hard in mostly sunny conditions on a slow, flat pitch. The batsmen were only rarely offered easy runs and Westwood’s willingness to graft is a value too often underappreciated. He took a blow on the hand on 71 and had one moment of good fortune, on 118, when Jack Brooks appeared to run him out with a direct hit, but umpire Jeremy Lloyds surprised the fielders by giving him not out.

He shared partnerships of 95 with William Porterfield, who was dismissed just after lunch as Tim Bresnan struck in the first over of a session for the second time in the day, and of 92 with Sam Hain, the 19-year-old batsman who already has four first-class hundreds and played some lovely shots before Bresnan had him leg before just after he had completed his half-century.

Hain hit seven fours and a six over long-on off James Middlebrook, the aforementioned off-spinner, who left Yorkshire in 2001 and spent the remainder of his career with Essex and then Northamptonshire, who released him at the end of last season.

He has been playing in the Bradford League while working towards a second career as an umpire and agreed to help out after England turned down Yorkshire’s request to send Adil Rashid back from the Caribbean. Should he take a wicket, it will be his 50th in first-class matches for Yorkshire.

It is no wonder that Yorkshire had mixed feelings when they terminated the contract of seam-bowling all-rounder Ollie Robinson last July. The stepson of England assistant coach Paul Farbrace, he was rated highly by head coach Jason Gillespie but fell short of the required professionalism on several counts. His timekeeping was poor, they said, and he once turned up for a game at the wrong ground.

Robinson is clearly a player of some talent, as he demonstrated by making 110 – batting at No 9 – on his first-class debut for Sussex yesterday, having been given the chance to start afresh.

The 21-year-old hit 18 fours before he was caught in the gully off Usman Arshad, his last-wicket stand with Matt Hobden almost doubling Sussex’s total against Durham at Chester-le-Street. For good measure, he than shared the new ball with Steve Magoffin and took 2 for 25.

Australian seamer Clint McKay made his debut as Leicestershire began another bid to win a first Championship match since 2012 against Northamptonshire at Grace Road but he was overshadowed by 23-year-old all-rounder Ben Raine, who was on a hat-trick twice in taking a career-best 4 for 55.

Kevin Pietersen still awaits a substantial Championship score for Surrey after being dismissed leg before for 32 by Essex’s New Zealand all-rounder Jesse Ryder, whose gentle medium pace also accounted for Kumar Sangakkara and Jason Roy. Not so Alex Hales, the Nottinghamshire batsman, who followed his 236 against Yorkshire with an unbeaten 136 at Hampshire.

On an extraordinary day at Taunton, Middlesex’s Nick Gubbins paid a heavy price for dropping James Hildreth on 49 as the Somerset batsman went on to score 187 with 25 fours and two sixes. Former England opener Marcus Trescothick, in his 40th year, made 140 – but Somerset lost their last seven wickets for 31 to be all out for 408.

Jordan Clark’s first-class debut for Lancashire against Kent is his 46th senior appearance for the county.