Yorkshire and Essex were subjected to more frustration as day two of their Specsavers County Championship match was abandoned without a ball bowled.

The Emerald Headingley outfield down at the Rugby end of the ground was a particular problem area, with a significant amount of standing water remaining following recent wet weather.

There was no rain today, however, with the sun even out when umpires Ian Gould and Richard Illingworth made their final decision.

Essex coach Anthony McGrath said: “I’m fully behind what the umpires have got to say. I’m just bitterly disappointed that, given we’ve got a sunny day, we’re not playing cricket.

“I believe these are the only two days without rain they’ve had in the last four weeks. You can understand that, and it’s been the same countrywide.

“It’s a shame because the crowd’s building nicely ready for some cricket. We’ll come back in the morning and see what happens.

“They can’t get the water hog on there because it would keep bringing the water up, and they don’t think it will dry in time for the rest of the day.

“If the bowlers run up on it and the fielders stand in it, it will make it much worse and be a bit of a quagmire.

“It’s just really frustrating, but the umpires have got to do what’s right for the ground and both teams.

“We could wait here for another four hours, keep everyone here and we’d still not be guaranteed to play. It’s one of those unfortunate periods of weather we’ve been in.”