County Champions Yorkshire went into today's game against Somerset at Scarborough knowing that they must win five of their last nine matches in order to avoid relegation.

That is the target they have been set by coach Wayne Clark but it is a tall order for the beleaguered title holders who are still searching frantically for their first victory.

What a far cry it is from the first of their two visits to North Marine Road last year when they beat Glamorgan by an innings and 112 runs on August 24 to clinch the Championship for the first time in 33 years with two rounds of matches still to be played.

Since then they have hit rock bottom with seven defeats in nine outings and their record so far this season is five defeats and two draws.

They have already lost to Somerset at Taunton by seven wickets inside three days but that is their opponents only success to date and they, too, are in danger of the drop unless they improve.

While Clark has outlined the overall plan, skipper Darren Lehmann is anxious that Yorkshire's immediate goal

is to make a first innings score of 400-plus against Somerset.

"Somerset's bowling without Andy Caddick is not too strong and our batsmen must take advantage of that," said Lehmann.

"Only once this season have we topped 400 in the first innings to take maximum batting bonus points and on only one other occasion have we gone beyond 300.

"We cannot take command of games with low scores and we have got to make sure we collect all our bonus points."

Only Lehmann of Yorkshire's batsmen has scored runs consistently and several of the others are aware that they could find themselves languishing in the second team unless there is a rapid improvement. Lehmann is in a class of his own and his last six innings for Yorkshire in all competitions have brought him a double century, a century and four half-centuries.