They were crying in their beer at Cooney's Crescent Hotel in Scarborough on Friday and Saturday and grown men wearing Yorkshire caps were gloomily tramping the seafront for lack of something better to do.

The annihilation of Yorkshire inside two days by Worcestershire made it probably the shortest of the 117 Scarborough Festivals - four days play out of eight - and the cricket fraternity were not happy at having time on their hands.

The first casualty was the opening fixture last Sunday between Yorkshire and Lancashire, which had to be cancelled a few weeks ago when the Red Rose side made it through to the semi-final of the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy, causing a possible clash of dates.

Then on Monday North Marine Road was hit by a violent thunderstorm, which deposited an estimated 50,000 gallons of water on the ground and brought about the abandonment of the Combined Services match with the MCC after only three balls.

The Bradford League v Yorkshire League match went ahead the following day but the full effect of that storm had still to be felt. Not surprisingly, water seeped on to the pitch prepared for the Championship game and caused the surface to sweat under the protective mat.

The pitch remained hard - no chunks were taken out of it on that first day when 25 wickets fell - but the retained moisture resulted in additional seam movement which, allied to the humidity that brought late movement through the air, proved too much for all the batsmen.

One was left wondering how Herbert Sutcliffe or Len Hutton or Geoff Boycott would have coped with these conditions, while at the same time acknowledging that Bill Bowes or Fred Trueman or Chris Old would probably have cleaned up in similar circumstances.

If Bowes had been keeping a watchful eye on events from above he would have seen his record of returning the best bowling performance in a Championship match at North Marine Road preserved, but only just.

The genial giant captured nine for 121 against Essex in 1932 and it seemed as if Worcestershire seamer Kabir Ali might go one better and take all ten when he ripped out the first seven in the Yorkshire batting order in the first innings.

But he was denied this distinction by Matt Mason, who bowled Andy Gray.

And with Nantie Hayward dismissing last man Steve Kirby, Kabir had to be content with final figures of eight for 53.

They were slightly better than Bowes' eight for 56 against Leicestershire in 1936 and the only other instances of bowlers taking eight wickets at Scarborough were George Paine (eight for 62 for Warwickshire in 1934), Phil Carrick (eight for 72 v Middlesex in 1975) and Harold Rhodes senior (eight for 162 for Derbyshire in 1947).

Not only will this year's Scarborough Festival be remembered for its shortness, but for Dickie Bird it will also be remembered as the year in which he almost missed out on some free lunches.

To the millionaire former Test umpire's horror he opened up his car boot after driving to Scarborough from Barnsley only to discover that he had left his jackets at home.

Fearful that he would not be allowed in to the sponsors' tent for free nosh, Dickie borrowed a jacket which was a good six inches too short for him in the sleeve.

Driving back to Barnsley for his forgotten clothing was out of the question and it never even occurred to Dickie that he could have walked into a gents' outfitters and purchased some new gear.