Former Batley Grammar School pupil David Stiff enhanced his chances of a Yorkshire debut this season with a stunning bowling performance for England in their third under-19s Test against Australia in Sydney.

The 18-year-old paceman, who stands 6ft 5in tall and is still growing, rocked Australia in their first innings by grabbing five for 35.

Stiff, who plays for Yorkshire Academy and Yorkshire Seconds, bowled with such speed and hostility that it was described as "a terrific performance" by Australia under-19 coach Wayne Phillips.

Stiff came close to a Yorkshire first-team place late last summer but just lost out to Nick Thornicroft, from Sheriff Hutton, who was showing better form at the time.

Yorkshire are delighted with Stiff's latest effort Down Under and director of cricket Geoff Cope said: "David did not have the best of starts on the tour but he has improved steadily and the reports we have been getting back are encouraging. The experience he has gained should benefit him greatly this season."

Stiff is just one of the latest batch of fast bowlers which Yorkshire are regularly churning out on their conveyor belt and Academy boss Steve Oldham is confident that some of them are real England prospects.

Thornicroft and Pontefract-born paceman Tim Bresnan have also been part of the England under-19 squad in Australia - along with their Academy team-mates Andrew Gale, Dan Broadbent and Mark Lawson - and Oldham is further excited by the fast bowling talents of Chris Gilbert, from Scarborough, and Stephen Patterson, from Hull.

"They will go on improving with regular second team cricket and periods of rest in between and if there are first team places to be filled later in the season they should be ready to step in," said Oldham.

Yorkshire off-spinner Richard Dawson, just back from the Ashes tour, has been included in the ECB National Academy squad to tour Sri Lanka during the

World Cup. Also included in the party is Bingley-born off-spinner Gareth Batty, who left Yorkshire for Surrey and is now forging a successful career with Worcestershire.

Meanwhile, Yorkshire's new captain Anthony McGrath is to travel to London later this month to seek advice on the art of leadership from Mike Brearley who had an outstanding record as England captain.

"It will be a one-to-one consultation and next month McGrath will visit Brearley again along, with new batting coach Kevin Sharp," said Cope.

Yorkshire have now fixed up some

pre-season matches to get them in trim

for the new campaign which begins on Good

Friday, April 18, with Northamptonshire's visit to Headingley in the Championship.

On April 8 and 9, Yorkshire Seconds will play Bradford-Leeds Universities' Centre of Excellence at Headingley and on April 9 and 10 the first team will travel to Riverside for a single-innings match of 100 overs a day against Durham. The first team will play the seconds on April 14 and 16 - no play taking place on the 15th because the players have another engagement.