YORKSHIRE Phoenix hauled themselves back from the abyss at Scarborough when they beat Gloucestershire Gladiators by 70 runs to keep alive their hopes of avoiding the plunge into Division Two of the Norwich Union League.

Although Yorkshire's coloured-clothing season is now over, their fate will not be sealed until Sunday when other counties play their final round of fixtures, but Nottinghamshire Outlaws, Somerset Sabres and Gloucestershire will all have win their matches if Yorkshire are to be relegated.

And with Kent Spitfires going flat-out to gun down Notts to clinch the title, Yorkshire must fancy their chances of survival.

The situation looked far less encouraging yesterday, however, when Yorkshire lost their first four wickets for 38 after winning the toss. But Darren Lehmann and Richard Blakey both reached notable milestones in helping them recover to 161 for 8.

Darren Gough, in his last match of the season, and Matthew Hoggard, then floored the Gladiators by sharing the spoils as four wickets tumbled in ten balls with the score on 13 and Gloucestershire's injury-hit team limped to 91 all out in 36.5 overs.

Lehmann, also in his final game, signed off with a flourish, his 69 runs making him Yorkshire's highest scoring batsman in league knockout cricket.

The powerful left-hander claimed top-spot when he had made 21, overtaking the 704 scored by fellow Australian Michael Bevan in the 1995 season.

Apart from a six out of the ground and into a guest house garden when he was allowed a free hit against Mike Smith, Lehmann rarely tried to go over the top while putting on an invaluable 73 in 19 overs with Blakey.

The wicketkeeper-batsman lasted until the last ball of the innings in compiling a patient 52 from 93 deliveries with just two boundaries, and on completing his sixth run he joined Geoff Boycott and David Byas as the only Yorkshire players to have made 5,000 league runs.

During the stand, Lehmann moved to his 50 off 65 balls with five fours and a six and he had added no further boundaries when he was caught behind by Mark Alleyne trying to run James Averis down to third man.

Alleyne was keeping wicket in emergency circumstances, Jack Russell being unable to play after being struck in the face by a ball during the pre-match warm-up.

Gough straight drove Martyn Ball for a big six and thrashed Averis through extra cover before being caught at long on for 13, but runs were generally hard to come by on a slow surface, Averis finishing with four for 42.

The best of Gloucestershire's bowling, however, came from Dewsbury-born Smith in his first game of the season in the competition after being out with a serious groin injury. The left-arm seamer dismissed both Matthew Wood and Anthony McGrath in his second over with the new ball and he ended with two for 18 off his nine overs.

Gloucestershire were soon stunned as their early batting was swept aside by Gough and Hoggard who both looked as sharp as at any stage of the season.

The slide started with Tim Hancock going for a big hit off Hoggard and holing out to Michael Vaughan at deep extra cover while Dominic Hewson's off-stump was knocked back by Gough who in the same over pinned Matt Windows lbw.

Hoggard had Kim Barnett caught at short cover by Lehmann and even when Gough was rested with figures of 7-3-7-2 there was no respite for Gloucestershire, Ryan Sidebottom coming on to have Rob Cunliffe caught behind from his second delivery which curved away just enough to find the edge.

Alleyne battled bravely for 15 runs in 22 overs before he lost patience and lashed out at Sidebottom, only to be well caught by Richard Dawson diving forward on the mid-wicket boundary to hold on to the ball inches from the ground.

Ball made sure Gloucestershire went down fighting by blasting sixes over mid-wicket off consecutive balls from Lehmann but the game ended when he was spectacularly run out by Gough who hurled down the stumps from deep mid-on with Ball unable to complete a single.

Updated: 11:48 Tuesday, September 11, 2001