Yorkshire's fiercely contested Roses match came to a watery end at Headingley today when torrential rain brought about its abandonment even before the scheduled starting time.

The deluge was a particular blow to Yorkshire who were in much the better position to go on to force a victory, Lancashire standing on 127 for two in their second innings which gave them a slender lead of 18.

Yorkshire had been steeling themselves for a massive effort this morning to make quick inroads into the batting and leave themselves with a modest target on their hands, but there was never any question of getting the ground fit even if the rain stopped.

The big consolation for Yorkshire was that they took 11 points from the match to Lancashire's nine, pushing them into the second place in the Championship previously occupied by their Red Rose rivals.

Yorkshire are now just three points behind leaders Surrey who Lancashire have to meet twice.

Surrey have already beaten Yorkshire at the Oval but have still to play them at Scarborough where they are unlikely to find the North Marine Road pitch receptive to their spinners.

It was a credit to Yorkshire's tenacious batting yesterday that they should reach 376 and gain four batting bonus points after a double blow had left them struggling on 209 for six.

Darren Lehmann did not add to his overnight 83 and Richard Blakey was out for a duck but skipper David Byas hit a courageous 81 off 197 balls, striking ten fours.

Byas received excellent support from the cool Gary Fellows and the pressure was considerably eased when first Richard Green with a back injury and then Sourav Ganguly with a groin strain had to be withdrawn from what was already a second string attack.

But Ganguly's departure proved embarrassing for Byas because Neil Fairbrother completed the over and his second ball was nicked by the captain to wicketkeeper Warren Hegg to bring the Lancastrian only his sixth wicket in 18 years of first class cricket.

After putting on 82 with Byas and taking Yorkshire into the lead, Fellows, celebrating his 22nd birthday, then played some further sparkling shots while adding 46 with Chris Silverwood and he had managed his career-best score of 46 when he nibbled at Glen Chapple and Michael Atherton held a good catch at first slip.

Matthew Hoggard's boundary which flew between first and second slip without either responding took Yorkshire to 351 for eight and produced a fourth batting point.

In attempting to secure a fifth, however, Silverwood hoisted Gary Keedy to long on, where he was caught by Fairbrother for a brisk 34.

The innings ended with Hoggard hitting a catch to Keedy at point off Andy Flintoff who, because of a bad back, was not expected to bowl and did so only because of Lancashire's emergency situation.

Atherton and John Crawley began to wipe off the arrears positively but 19-year-old Chris Elstub came on as first change and Atherton edged a drive at an away swinger into Blakey's gloves.

It was another notable scalp for the teenager who had dismissed Andy Flintoff and Neil Fairbrother in the first innings, and he would have claimed Flintoff's wicket again if he had been able to hold on to a stinging return drive when the batsman was five.

Once again, Flintoff was in a menacing mood but having smacked five boundaries in his 25, Silverwood found the edge of his bat and Byas took a fast catch at second slip.

Both Crawley and Fairbrother attacked strongly in the closing overs to add an unbroken 53 together, Crawley finishing unbeaten on 46 and Fairbrother 26.

Spinner Dan Broadbent, one of four Yorkshire players in the match, took 3-23 as England beat India by 82 runs at Eton in their first Costcutter Under-15s World Cup match. England scored 246-9 and then bowled out India for 164.

PPP healthcare County Championship

Division One

(last day of four)

Yorkshire v Lancashire

(at Headingley)

Lancashire First Innings: 267 (92 overs) (Hegg 75, Hoggard 4-70).

Yorkshire First Innings

Widdup c Hegg b Chapple 16

Vaughan c & b Smethurst 31

McGrath c Flintoff b Smethurst 17

Lehmann lbw b Smethurst 83

White lbw b Green 10

Byas c Hegg b Fairbrother 81

Blakey lbw b Chapple 0

Fellows c Atherton b Chapple 46

Silverwood c Fairbrother b Keedy 34

Hoggard c Keedy b Flintoff 14

Elstub not out 4

Extras b1 lb10 w10 nb19 40

Total (124.5 overs) 376

Fall: 1-20 2-75 3-94 4-108 5-208 6-209 7-291

8-337 9-367

Bowling: Chapple 30-6-80-3; Smethurst 31-5-101-3; Ganguly 12.4-2-33-0; Green 18-4-68-1; Keedy 27-4-73-1; Fairbrother 2.2-1-5-1; Flintoff 3.5-2-5-1.

Lancashire Second Innings

Atherton c Blakey b Elstub 17

Crawley not out 46

Flintoff c Byas b Silverwood 25

Fairbrother not out 26

Extras b5 lb2 nb6 13

Total 2 wkts (42 overs - Rain stopped play) 127

Fall: 1-31, 2-74

Bowling: Silverwood 12-2-34-1; Hoggard 14-3-35-0; Elstub 6-2-15-1; White 7-1-26-0; Vaughan 3-1-10-0.