Yorkshire are showing a new toughness both on and off the field as they go into the final straight ahead of the pack in the chase for the CricInfo Championship title.

They never know one day from the next whether England are going to allow some or any or none of Yorkshire's Test players to take part in the next county match.

It was only on Sunday night, for instance, that they learned who could and who could not take part in the Roses match.

It was perhaps with some surprise that they discovered they were being encouraged to play Michael Vaughan who has been out of action for several weeks following a knee operation.

No doubt the England selectors, who have an obsession with picking certain players before they have proved their fitness, wanted to see if Vaughan stood any chance at all of making it for next week's Headingley Test.

But Yorkshire knew that thrusting Vaughan straight into a crucial Roses match would not be in their best interests and they quite rightly sent him to make his comeback in the second team at Harrogate.

It was unfortunate for Vaughan that the first day of that game against Kent Seconds on Wednesday was washed out but that was through no fault of Yorkshire's.

Yorkshire's decision was soon fully vindicated when Craig White was given the opening spot which would have gone to Vaughan and he blasted Lancashire's bowlers out of sight in a way which would have been impossible for a batsman tentatively testing his fitness.

White's brilliant 309 opening stand with Matthew Wood - now virtually guaranteed to receive his first team cap at Scarborough shortly - demonstrated the new on-the-field urgency which is apparent with Yorkshire these days.

It's all right some Red Rose pundits trying to excuse the carnage by saying the bowling was not up to standard but when is it ever thought to be 'hot' when it is being taken apart by marauding batsmen?

Yorkshire needed to make fast runs after losing a day and a session to bad weather and White and Wood made sure that they got them, proving that their team are on the prowl and hungry for the Championship.