Yorkshire's profile has never been higher what with three of their players performing heroically in England's two-day thrashing of the West Indies at Headingley and the county team itself fighting for honours in both the Championship and the National League.

And all this during a season when Yorkshire have rarely been free of serious injuries to several key players at any given time.

It's quite a remarkable achievement, but if in the end Yorkshire miss out on silverware once again they will have only themselves to blame for a short unaccountable period of midsummer madness.

Until then, their only blip in the season had been their poor performance against Surrey at Headingley which resulted in their exit from the Benson and Hedges Cup at the quarter-final stage.

But they brushed off that hiccup and were riding high on all other fronts until they visited Gloucestershire Gladiators at Bristol in a National League game on June 24.

They crashed by 51 runs and were truly terrible, despite having only Darren Gough missing of their four Test squad players.

The following day, with Craig White and Chris Silverwood 'rested', they were just as inexplicably bad against Northamptonshire Steelbacks at Headingley and these two lapses were the start of four defeats in five matches.

Phoenix have clawed their way back into contention with three consecutive victories and they will extend that sequence if they can gain revenge over Division One title rivals Steelbacks at Northampton on Monday.

If Yorkshire had not been guilty of those sloppy exhibitions, however, they would now be firmly in the driving seat and hot favourites to whisk off the £54,000 prize for finishing up as champions.

They still have a chance of doing it if they win their last three matches to round off the season with six consecutive successes but the £27,000 on offer for the runners-up spot is a more likely goal.

The midsummer blip did not stop at the National League for Yorkshire also lost their top spot in the Championship through defeats at Old Trafford and The Oval and being held to a draw by lowly Durham at Headingley.

And while all this was going on they turned in another shocker with a full strength side at Northampton and got kicked out of the NatWest Trophy.

Yorkshire have so far this season always maintained a high place in the battle for the Championship and next week's clash with leaders Surrey at Scarborough is eagerly anticipated, but again the likelihood is that they will end up just short of the top because of mid-season lethargy.

There has been no shortage of individual glory for Yorkshire players, however, with Gough, White and Vaughan turning on the style for England and Matthew Hoggard and Chris Silverwood for Phoenix in last Sunday's amazing defeat of Leicestershire Foxes at Grace Road, when the home side were destroyed for 53 - the second lowest score ever registered against Yorkshire in county league cricket.

Not only have the three Test stars safeguarded their England status for quite some time to come, but Vaughan would appear to have made substantial progress in other directions as well.

Sir Viv Richards named Vaughan man-of-the-match for his magnificent batting at No 6 which brought him a career-best Test score of 76 and it cannot be long now before Vaughan takes over from Michael Atherton as opener alongside Marcus Trescothick.

Atherton has given great service to England and there are times when he is still invaluable in backs-to-the-wall situations, but his failures outnumber his successes these days and it may not be in England's best interests for him to go on keeping Vaughan out of the opener's slot.

It is not only on the field that Vaughan knows how to conduct himself and his intelligent newspaper and television interviews after the Headingley Test also made a wider audince appreciate that he has every chance of going on to become the next England captain.

No other young player in recent times has shown such an aptitude for cricket at the highest level and I am convinced that Vaughan is one of that rare band of players who will prove to be consistently better for England than for his county.

Batsmen like Grame Hick and Mark Ramprakash are brilliant strokeplayers but their temperament is often called into question on the big occasion. Vaughan, however, thrives on it and the adrenalin will always be flowing through his veins that bit more speedily when he is wearing his England cap.

PICTURE: HEADINGLEY HERO: Yorkshire and England pace-ace Darren Gough is greeted by Costcutter chairman and managing director Colin Graves, left, at the company's headquarters. The Dunnington firm will be helping organise Gough's benefit year at the county club which starts on January 1, 2001.