Yorkshire delight in not-quite-perfect day

Durham 265 (Brooks 4-76) and 39 for 3 need a further 382 to beat Yorkshire 460 and 225 for 2 dec (Lyth 114*, Lees 88)Scorecard

There is no such thing in Yorkshire as a perfect day. The very notion is an impertinence, a character flaw which must be eradicated. Yorkshire came close to it at Headingley as they pressed for a hat-trick of Championship titles. They asserted themselves so successfully against Durham with both bat and ball that victory looks comfortably within their grasp on the final day. Middlesex, the leaders, can feel their advantage being clipped away.

But nothing is ever perfect. To Yorkshire cricket historians this was another chance gone begging, another cause for a regretful shaking of heads, another opportunity squandered to right a wrong. This time it was Alex Lees who passed up the chance. Next year, it will be someone else. By the time this blot on Yorkshire’s cricketing landscape is removed, the cognoscenti who have long awaited the day in the darkest recesses of the decrepit old Rugby Stand, where the sun never dares intrude, can expect to be looking on from a stand altogether more palatial.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a Yorkshire cricket fan in possession of a bit of brass must be in want of a Yearbook. Jane Austen never quite penned that line, but in Yorkshire cricket’s alternative version of Pride and Prejudice, it is a fact nonetheless.

The 118th edition of the Yorkshire Yearbook carries on its front cover a picture of Andrew Gale, the captain, and Dickie Bird, a much-loved former player, president and lucky mascot, with the Championship trophy. With Durham, set 421 for victory, pruned back to 39 for 3 in the 16 overs by the close of the third day, expectations have never been as high all season that a third title is within …

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