Gold award winner Matthew Wood expunged Geoff Boycott from the Yorkshire record books yesterday with a blistering 160 against Devon in the third round of the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy at sun-blessed Exmouth.
Boycott had held the county's previous highest individual score in the competition for 39 years with his memorable 146 off Surrey's attack in the 1965 Gillette Cup final at Lord's, an innings generally recognised as his finest in one-day cricket.
Bolstered by Wood's assault, Yorkshire thrashed their way to 411 for six but Devon showed they had plenty of batting ammunition themselves by reaching 278 for eight, Yorkshire still cruising through to the quarter-finals by the comfortable margin of 132 runs.
It was a memorable day for the 2,000 spectators who saw 690 runs scored and a total of 24 sixes hit, 13 by Yorkshire and 11 by their gallant Minor Counties' opponents.
Wood's effort was Yorkshire's second highest knock in one-day cricket, beaten only by Darren Lehmann's 191 against Nottinghamshire in the National League at Scarborough in 2001.
With Devon already having disposed of Leicestershire in the previous round, Yorkshire went into the game nervous of the outcome but Wood soon put minds at rest with his onslaught which lasted for a mere 124 balls and brought him 23 fours and four sixes.
Craig White departed early on when he chipped back a catch to Neil Hancock but Michael Lumb joined in the spree by helping Wood smash 144 in 20 overs before being stumped off Arul Suppiah for 77 from 62 balls with a dozen fours and a straight six into the sightscreen.
Australian Phil Jaques rapped out 55 and Anthony McGrath thumped an unbeaten 64 from 35 deliveries with four fours and five sixes.
After Lumb had gone, Wood put on 124 in 11 overs with Jaques and there were further brutal bursts of scoring from McGrath and Andrew Gale (43 together in three overs), McGrath and Tim Bresnan (31 in two) and McGrath
and Richard Blakey (35 unbroken in three).
Devon embarked on some splendid big hitting of their own. Openers Matthew Hunt and Chris Mole laid the foundation with a solid 78 stand in 23 overs to pave the way for Bobby Dawson, who launched a violent assault on Andy Gray as he made his way to 50 off 25 balls with five fours and two sixes before McGrath had him caught on the cover boundary by Lumb.
Still the sixes kept coming, two of them for Suppiah in one over from Gray, and it was entirely fitting that the last ball of the contest should be hit high over the crowd by Andy Procter. McGrath emerged from the mayhem with four for 56.
