Everything is all set for a cracking Roses battle today as Yorkshire embarked on their 240th Championship match against Lancashire - and the 50th to be played at Headingley since 1893, two years after the ground opened.

Of the 49 contests, Yorkshire have won 13 and lost nine with the remaining 27 ending up as draws, while overall Yorkshire triumphed on 74 occasions and Lancashire on 49.

It would delight Lancashire to notch their 50th win in the 50th game at Headingley but Yorkshire skipper, Craig White, is determined to lead his White Rose side to a victory which would strengthen their bid for promotion.

"The boys are feeling refreshed after a week off and I am looking forward to a really good match," said White.

"Although professional cricketers have to take every game seriously, no matter who it is against, there is still that extra something about Roses cricket which makes it pretty special.

"After this game there is a break from Championship cricket while the Twenty-20s are played and I will be very happy if we have a win against Lancashire under our belts by the weekend.

"The encouraging thing is that we have got into the top three without yet having played our best cricket. If we can put that extra five or ten per cent into our game in the last two-thirds of the season we should be all right."

Top-of-the-table Durham and third-placed Yorkshire are the only Second Division sides still unbeaten this season but Lancashire are still prowling in the middle of the pack and just 12.5 points behind Yorkshire.

This is the first Roses match in the Championship for three years, Yorkshire suffering the indignation of relegation at the end of the 2002 season, but even in the two Roses games of that summer Yorkshire generally got the better of things.

One of their only two wins all season was against Lancashire at Old Trafford when Gary Fellows scored his solitary first class century for Yorkshire, while the game earlier on at Headingley ended in a draw after Anthony McGrath (165) and Darren Lehmann (187) had piled up 317 together, the second highest third wicket stand in the club's history.

Playing in both of those matches for Lancashire was Yorkshire's current director of cricket, David Byas, who had quit his home county at the end of the previous season when he was not re-appointed captain after leading them to the Championship title.

Byas made only five at Headingley before having his stumps wrecked by Darren Gough and he was no more successful at Old Trafford with scores of four and 14.