DIRECTOR of Cricket Martyn Moxon is hoping rain has not halted Yorkshire’s T20 momentum as he prepares for a hectic period in two competitions for Yorkshire in the next week.

Steady showers forced umpires Neil Bainton and Neil Mallender to call off their Headingley encounter against Northamptonshire without a ball being bowled yesterday, denying Yorkshire the chance to continue their impressive form of the previous week.

Nail-biting victories over Worcestershire at Headingley and against Lancashire at Old Trafford last Thursday and Friday put them back on track in the North group after losing successive matches at Warwickshire and Nottinghamshire to begin their campaign.

But Moxon’s focus for the next few days will be on preparing Yorkshire for another Roses encounter at Headingley next Friday, before they travel up the A1 for a four-day championship match against titlefavourites Durham starting the following morning.

“We need to give the lads a couple of days break because they’ve had a busy schedule of late and then we’ve got a busy schedule when we start again on Friday,” admitted Moxon.

“We’ll have a couple of days rest and then a couple of days practice ready for an important six days.

“Ultimately the quality of the product has to be affected when you have situations like that. With the best will of the world, given decent weather and the game going its full course, we’re not going to get to the hotel at Durham until 11.30pm and you can’t just go straight to sleep then.

“Having played in a t20 game and then driven up there, it takes time to wind down so it’s going to be a challenge for both teams to come out Saturday morning and put in quality four-day cricket.”

Yorkshire did consider asking Durham, who are playing a T20 match at Leicester on Friday so have similar travel problems, if they could make a joint application to the England and Wales Cricket Board to delay the start of the championship match but decided to stick with the original schedule.

Weather permitting this week, Moxon is hopeful that a couple of days practice should enhance their skills as they attempt to complete a Roses double over Lancashire in front of a packed Headingley crowd next Friday.

Moxon stressed: “It’s unusual to have a game completely washed out these days and it’s very disappointing. Having won the last two games it would have been nice to try and keep that momentum going.

“We went straight from championship cricket into the t20 for the first two games and it didn’t help not having any practice, but once we did get the chance to do two days of practice it showed.

“I think we were a lot sharper although there is still plenty of work to be done. They weren’t two perfect performances and there are still areas that need to be improved upon, but it was much better and hopefully the more we play it the better we’ll get at it.”