YORKSHIRE'S hopes of ending their Championship season with a home victory were virtually destroyed at Headingley yesterday by Kent seamer Martin Saggers who made them follow-on 181 runs in arrears.

They then made a shocking start to their second innings and were 13-1 when bad light lopped off the last nine overs of the day.

Saggers went into the game as the country's leading wicket-taker with 77 first-class dismissals and he added to his tally with 4-44, including Yorkshire's first two first innings wickets in the space of ten balls.

If Yorkshire fail to win the match, it will be only the fifth time since the formation of the club in 1863 that they have gone through a whole season without a home win.

The last time this happened was under Ray Illingworth's captaincy in 1983 when they finished bottom of the table for the only time in their history - a feat which they now look like repeating.

Although Kent were well on top at the start of the second day, it began favourably for Yorkshire with the dismissal of Australia's captain Steve Waugh, who added only ten to his overnight 136 before Steven Kirby had him caught behind attempting to cut.

His chanceless knock contained 19 fours and a six and his runs came off 249 balls.

James Tredwell continued to bat well until he was also undone by Kirby for 61 and a good strong spell by Ryan Sidebottom finished off Kent for 399, so leaving them one run short of a fifth batting bonus point.

Yorkshire were left with six overs to bat up to lunch and they staggered in on 20-3, Scott Richardson departing lbw to the third ball from Saggers, who had Matthew Elliott caught behind with an unplayable delivery.

Michael Lumb impetuously sliced Amjad Khan's final ball before the break into the hands of Min Patel at gully and early in the afternoon it became 54-4 when Anthony McGrath edged Saggers to Paul Nixon.

Richard Blakey, needing 55 runs to complete 1,000 for the season, came in above Gary Fellows, who was resting a sprained right wrist, but the captain was lbw to Mark Ealham for only two.

White once again made batting look easy and he hit some blistering shots on his way to 62 with 11 boundaries but then Saggers came back and his first ball flattened the England all-rounder's off-stump.

Fellows spoiled himself by hooking indiscriminately at Khan to be caught at long leg by David Masters.

Sidebottom batted fluently for his 28 and Richard Dawson thoroughly deserved a half-century but in trying to reach it with a boundary he was bowled sweeping at Patel.

For the second time in the day, Yorkshire lost a wicket before they had scored a run, this time Lumb being lbw to Khan, but they were spared further embarrassment when it became too gloomy to continue.

County Championship Round-up

Division One

Taunton: Somerset 221 & 129 v Lancashire 228 & 124-2 (Byas 63no, Law 57no). Lancs (16pts) beat Somerset(4pts) by eight wickets

The Oval: Surrey 494 (Newman 183, I Ward 118, Batty 74) v Leicestershire 303-5 (73.3overs, Maddy 109no, Stevens 53)

Hove: Sussex 352 & 166-4 (42.2ov, Goodwin 111) v Warwickshire 293 (66.4ov, Frost 73, Carter 103)

Division Two

Chelmsford: Notts 341& 39-1 (15ov) v Essex 282 (88.4ov, Stephenson 65, Habib 50). *Essex promoted.

Cardiff: Glamorgan 348 (Powell 113, Croft 59, Maynard 50; Innes 7-90) v Northants 409-8 (105ov, White 69, Penberthy 120no, Borphy 110)

Bristol: Durham 216 & 120-1 (36ov, Gough 70no) v Gloucs 359 (98.5ov, Spearman 89, Gidman 96)

New Road: Derbyshire 246 & 98-2 (31.2ov) v Worcs 265 (68.3ov, Peters 72, Solanki 81).

SCOREBOARD

Frizzell County Championship Division One

Yorkshire v Kent

at Headingley

(Day 3 of 4)

Kent First Innings: 399 (S Waugh 146)

Yorkshire First Innings

Richardson lbw b Saggers 0

Lumb c Patel b Khan 8

Elliott c Nixon b Saggers 8

McGrath c Nixon b Saggers 17

White b Saggers 62

Blakey lbw b Ealham 2

Fellows c Masters b Khan 34

Dawson b Patel 47

Sidebottom c Tredwell b Ealham 28

Kirby c Tredwell b Ealham 4

Thornicroft not out 0

Extras lb3 nb4 8

Total (60.1 overs) 218

Fall: 1-0 2-16 3-20 4-54 5-69 6-121 7-150 8-196 9-208

Bowling: Saggers 13-2-44-4 Khan 11-1-52-2 Ealham 16-3-55-3 Masters 9-1-23-0 Patel 9.1-2-32-1 Tredwell 2-1-8-0

Yorkshire Second Innings

(following on)

Richardson not out 3

Lumb lbw b Khan 0

Elliott not out 10

Extras 0

Total 1wkt (8 overs) 13

Fall: 1-0

Bowling: Saggers 3-2-6-0 Khan 2-1-4-1 Tredwell 2-0-2-0 Patel 1-0-1-0

Updated: 11:44 Friday, September 20, 2002