THE flies plagued Yorkshire Phoenix at Arundel yesterday and Yorkshire in turn attacked Sussex Sharks, crushing them by eight wickets to stay top of Division Two of the totesport League with six wins out of their last seven matches.

Yorkshire's yellow away strip attracted the flies so strongly that their shirts were covered during practice and the players had to delve deep into their bags to see how many of the navy blue home outfits they could come up with.

They managed 11 between them, but not all sported different names and Yorkshire had two Matthew Hoggards, two Chris Silverwoods and two Richard Blakeys - plus one Steve Kirby who was not even playing.

It needed only one Hoggard, however, splendidly supported by Tim Bresnan, to have Sussex in disarray after they won the toss and decided to bat first on a slowish pitch with some movement. Inside the first ten overs they had been reduced to 43 for five and the match was over as a contest.

Bresnan began the slide in his first over by trapping Ian Ward lbw on the backfoot and Hoggard accounted for Murray Goodwin in similar style.

Captain Chris Adams was snuffed out, caught low at first slip by Andy Gray off Hoggard, while Bresnan knocked back Tony Cottey's middle stump before Hoggard ended opener Matt Prior's resistance when he edged to Richard Blakey, who hurried south the previous evening to replace Simon Guy.

Chris Silverwood was erratic at times, but Vic Craven was right on target with his medium pacers and helped clean up with three for 13 off 4.1 overs, with only Luke Wright lasting for any length of time.

The innings lasted only 32.1 overs and Yorkshire were soon going in with a new opening combination in Chris Taylor and Andrew Gale, the pair certain of their places after Michael Lumb went home early after spraining an ankle in training.

Taylor fell lbw to Jason Lewry's second delivery but in his next over the left-armer retired with a rib muscle spasm after sending down three consecutive wides, one of which went to the boundary.

Lewry's absence made Yorkshire's task easier although they had to contend with a probing spell from Robin Martin-Jenkins who was not scored off until his 23rd delivery.

Gale and acting captain Matthew Wood soon had Yorkshire homing in on their target with a 92-stand in 20 overs for the second wicket, Wood playing meticulously in defence and attack while Gale showed that he is a batsman prepared to hit the ball hard at every opportunity.

The left-hander advanced down the track to hit some powerful drives and registered the only six of the game by despatching Martin-Jenkins high over wide long on.

Spinner Mark Davis checked Gale's aggressive intent but when he tried to hit medium-pacer Wright back over his head he ballooned the ball to wicketkeeper Prior and was out for 46 from 66 balls with six fours and a six.

Yorkshire were home in 26.5 overs, Wood ending with 41 from 68 deliveries.

* Yorkshire managed only 42 minutes' play on the final day of their Championship match against Hampshire at the Rose Bowl on Saturday, but it was sufficient for them to stop losing a precious point and for their promotion rivals to gain one.

When the rain ceased and allowed a brief passage of play in the afternoon, Hampshire resumed on 202 for six in reply to Yorkshire's 395.

On the previous day, Yorkshire had bowled their overs so slowly that they were two overs behind the required rate and they knew that unless they could make them up they would have a point docked.

So they pushed spinners Richard Dawson and Andy Gray straight into the attack with the result that ten overs were bowled in half-an-hour to get them up to speed again.

But Hampshire's seventh wicket pair of Nic Pothas and Shaun Udal made rapid progress during this time with Udal smacking a six off each bowler and when Udal was bowled by Gray for 41, the home side had moved on to 253 to pick up another batting bonus point.

Hampshire eventually finished on 259 for eight as the match was abandoned.