A dynamic all-round display by Chris Silverwood came to Yorkshire's rescue in the Championship match at Taunton yesterday.

But his performance was sensationally overshadowed by Ian Blackwell, who smashed an unbeaten century off 100 balls with 11 fours and four sixes.

The burly left-hander dished out severe punishment to Matthew Hoggard, who was repeatedly hooked and pulled to the boundary as the England paceman deliberately bowled short.

In one over, Hoggard was thrashed for two sixes and three fours by Blackwell and his second spell cost him 64 runs in ten overs.

Blackwell charged to his century off the penultimate ball of the day from Richard Dawson, which he blasted high over long-on, and Somerset closed on 186 for six in reply to Yorkshire's 213.

Silverwood's fluent strokeplay earlier brought him an unbeaten 44 at a run a ball with eight boundaries and he then steamed in at the pavilion end to grab three Somerset wickets with his first 27 balls, conceding only a single.

Although a total of 16 wickets crashed on the first day - five of them to England's Andy Caddick - there were no complaints from pitch liaison officer Peter Walker, who saw every one of them fall.

Caddick's haul of five for 72 was the third consecutive innings in which he has taken five wickets against Yorkshire.

Caddick denied his England teammate Michael Vaughan the time he wanted in the middle by having him caught at second slip by Keith Dutch and then a fine ball trapped Darren Lehmann lbw.

Yorkshire had slipped to 146 for seven by the time Silverwood came in and they would have been in much deeper trouble without Lumb's 66 off 95 balls.

With Caddick returning to pick up the wicket of last man Hoggard, Silverwood was soon racing in from the pavilion end and creating havoc among the Somerset ranks.

In his first over, Marcus Trescothick was stunningly caught at head height at third slip by Lehmann and then Australian Jamie Cox was beaten for pace and had his off-stump uprooted before Peter Bowler fell lbw.

Gary Fellows came on to have Keith Parsons lbw as Somerset went in to tea on 26 for four and after the interval Hoggard picked up two wickets as the score dipped to 75 for six.

But suddenly Blackwell, ably supported by Keith Dutch, went on the rampage.