CAPTAIN Richard Blakey ended Yorkshire's Championship season in a blaze of personal glory but he still left Headingley in a gloomy mood as his relegated team remained stuck permanently on the bottom of the table.

Although Kent inflicted upon the outgoing County Champions their eighth defeat of a depressing summer with a comfortable eight wicket victory, Blakey made sure the loyal home fans had something pleasurable to remember during the long nights of winter.

Coming in with Yorkshire on 74-5 and heading rapidly towards an innings defeat, Blakey powered his way to a gallant 94 and in the process completed 1,000 runs for the season.

It was a tremendous achievement by Blakey batting at No 7 and his final aggregate of 1,041 runs at an average of 47.32 was second only to Darren Lehmann's 1,136 at 66.82.

Blakey first topped the 1,000 mark in 1987 and the 35-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman has now achieved the feat five times, the last occasion being eight years ago.

Yorkshire were still 107 runs in arrears when Blakey came to the crease and he set out his stall to knock off the 53 he still required to make it to the landmark. He was determined, also, that Yorkshire should be spared the embarrassment of an innings defeat and his shots packed an extra punch as he went about his work, first in a 73 stand with Craig White and then a 98 partnership with Richard Dawson.

Blakey struck Min Patel for a straight six before cover driving the next ball for four to complete his half-century and go to four figures with the same stroke. He marched into the 90s by sweeping James Tredwell from outside off-stump for six but on 94 he made thin contact with a cut at David Masters after facing 140 balls and striking 14 fours and two sixes.

Sportsman that he is, Blakey threw back his head in despair and then walked off without waiting for a signal from the umpire.

Yorkshire's fate had been sealed with the first ball of the morning from Martin Saggers which Matthew Elliott drove off a thick edge to Patel who held a fast catch at gully.

Anthony McGrath and Scott Richardson departed in Amjad Khan's opening burst and the fifth wicket went down when Gary Fellows drove injudiciously at Saggers and was caught behind.

White, who has signed to play with brother-in-law Lehmann for South Australia this winter, had six crisp boundaries in his 48 while Dawson cracked eight well executed fours before being bowled for 47 for the second time in the match.

Yorkshire's fightback left Kent to make 103 to win and although they began their innings in poor light after tea they were determined to knock off the runs and give themselves a day off today.

Sidebottom dismissed both David Fulton and Ed Smith lbw to finish as Yorkshire's leading wicket-taker with 41 victims at 29.02 runs apiece but Rob Key and Paul Nixon, in his last Championship match for Kent, knocked off the remaining 36 runs without any fuss, leaving their side awaiting the Warwickshire result today to know if they have netted £50,000 by claiming the runners-up spot.

There was even more glum news for Yorkshire after leaving the field without a home win for the first time since 1983 - the umpires had docked them one-and-threequarter points for bowling their overs too slowly.

Yorkshire Phoenix bring the curtain down on the season tomorrow by taking on Kent Spitfires at Headingley (noon) and Yorkshire chairman Geoff Cope announced that the under 17s will be let in free.

Yorkshire's new Chief Executive Colin Graves is set to meet with Darren Gough next week to continue discussions on an extended contract.

Dunnington-based Graves who organised Gough's benefit last season is anxious to retain the services of one of Yorkshire's star players.

SCOREBOARD

Frizzell County Champinship

Division One

Yorkshire v Kent

at Headingley

(Today is Day 4 of 4)

Kent First Innings 399 (Waugh 146)

Yorkshire First Innings 218 (White 62; Saggers 4-44)

Yorkshire Second Innings

(following on)

Richardson c Fulton b Khan 29

Elliott c Patel b Saggers 10

McGrath lbw b Khan 9

White b Patel 48

Fellows c Nixon b Saggers 14

Blakey c Nixon b Masters 94

Dawson b Ealham 47

Sidebottom run out 10

Thornicroft c Smith b Masters 4

Kirby not out 5

Extras b6 lb7 13

Total (79.4 overs) 283

Fall: 1-0 2-13 3-38 4-53 5-74 6-147 7-245 8-271 9-279

Bowling: Saggers 7-3-72-2 Khan 15-4-41-3 Tredwell 6-0-18-0 Patel 7-2-24-1 Ealham 22-6-59-1 Masters 12.4-1-56-2

Kent Second Innings

Fulton lbw b Sidebottom 12

Key not out 33

Smith lbw b Sidebottom 30

Nixon not out 14

Extras lb10 nb4 14

Total 2 wkts (21.1 overs) 103

Fall: 1-25 2-67

Did Not Bat: S R Waugh, M A Ealham, M M Patel, D D Masters, A Khan, M J Saggers, J C Tredwell.

Bowling: Kirby 8-0-37-0 Sidebottom 8-0-34-2 McGrath 3-1-9-0 Thornicroft 2.1-1-13-0

Kent (19pts) beat Yorkshire (4pts) by 8 wkts

Updated: 11:09 Saturday, September 21, 2002