Cricket: Nottinghamshire today signed Yorkshire's 31-year-old left-arm spinner Richard Stemp on a two-year contract.

Stemp, who was offered his release from Yorkshire at the end of last season with a year of his contract still to run, is Nottinghamshire manager Clive Rice's first signing.

Rice said: "Stemp is a lad with a bit of fire in his belly and desperately wants to win. I need that in my players if we are going to pull things round here. He is a fighter and a winner and I am sure he can make a big impact with us.

Stemp said: "I am a very ambitious person and still have high hopes of playing Test cricket one day. I feel Notts can give me the opportunity to fulfil that aim.

"Spinners get better as they get older and I am confident that I still have the best years of my career ahead of me.

"It came as a bombshell when I was told by Yorkshire that I could leave. I was the first non-Yorkshiremen born in this country to be brought into their first team and from day one I was made to feel like a foreigner but I already know a lot of the Notting-hamshire lads and will easily settle in."

In his six seasons with Yorkshire since joining them from Worcestershire, Stemp captured 241 first class wickets at an average of 35.50 runs apiece and in the AXA League he managed 67 dismissals at 29.52.

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