Bowler Lee Hodgson, above, stole the batting honours with a first-innings 82 for Yorkshire Seconds in their Friendly match against Middlesex at Radlett.

Yorkshire entered the third and last day 51 runs behind with six second-innings wickets standing, but they could not set up a challenging run chase, and they went down by six wickets. Man of the match for Yorkshire was Alex Lees, who played two innings of character and with a hint of things to come.

DAY 1: The peace of the suburban Brunton Memorial Ground was shattered by the passage of trains on the main line to St Pancras and a vociferous Middlesex bowler as Yorkshire, who were invited to bat, built a sizeable total on the 50s scored by Joe Root and Hodgson - Lee played several games on this ground for his former team, MCC Young Cricketers.

Two other Lees contributed valuable runs: Alex Lees, 17, batted for just over three hours, faced a gross of deliveries and accumulated 41. James Lee (singular) scored 33 at a higher rate, but none of the rest passed a dozen and the innings ended 90 minutes before the close on 262. The best bowling came from Toby Roland-Jones, with four at a dozen apiece.

There were 25 overs remaining in the day - and there was a quick success when skipper John Blain trapped Josh Davey leg-before with his first delivery. That was it for the day: Davey’s opening partner, Sam Robson, and the Middlesex captain, Daniel Housego, took the score to 105 by the close.

DAY 2: Three wickets were taken in the first session, but Middlesex doubled the score. Robson and Housego - who took his overnight score to 75 - fell lbw to Lee and Blain, but their partnership reached 116, the best stand of the match.

The remaining wickets fell in a long afternoon session of 42 overs. Adam London extended his score to 87, and Roland-Jones with a quick 63 was last man out, heralding the break for tea. Middlesex had added the best part of a couple of hundred in the session to take their lead to 144, a gross in old money.

Bad light brought an early end to the day. Charlie Roebuck’s run-a-ball 45 was eye-catching, but he was bowled in Roland-Jones's first over of his second spell. The others scored a similar number between them, and the Middlesex lead was reduced to 50 - but with four wickets down. It would take a lot of good work by the later batsmen to save the day.

DAY 3: Lees, who had faced half a dozen balls the previous evening, played almost a mirror image of his first innings. Batting throughout the morning, he lost three partners - including James Lee with 32 of 21 balls, his wicket falling on the stroke of 1pm, by which time Yorkshire had taken a slender lead of 21 with only three wickets remaining.

Those three wickets added a further 60 runs to leave Middlesex to score 83 runs to win, surely not too difficult a task? Four wickets went down in the first 10 overs for only 35, but in the 11th Robson had to retire with a hand injury. That was that. No more wickets as Kabir Toor and wicket-keeper Stuart Poynter found no difficulty in knocking off the winning runs.

Man of the match for Yorkshire was undoubtedly Alex Lees: six hours at the crease in his two innings, facing 267 deliveries and scoring 80 runs. The bare statistics do not do justice to his stature and composure at the crease.
Surely, there will be more to come?

The Seconds return to Radlett early next month to face MCC Young Cricketers in both the Trophy and Second Eleven Championship after another trip south to play a Kent-Northamptonshire team at Beckenham and matches against Warwickshire at York. Hopefully, there will be better results to report.

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Words and Statistics: MICHAEL SNOOK