Surrey contemptuously brushed aside Yorkshire by 203 runs at the Oval on Saturday with a thoroughly workmanlike performance which increased their lead at the top of the Championship table to 16 points.

Further salt was rubbed into Yorkshire's wounds by Lancashire whose draw with Somerset pushed them into second place, a point ahead of their Roses rivals.

Yorkshire's one crumb of comfort is that they still enjoy a game in hand of Surrey but nothing less than a win against Somerset at Scarborough this week will keep their fading challenge alive.

Surrey were so dismissive of Yorkshire that they even batted on for a while on the final morning before declaring at 345 for eight, the phenomenal Ally Brown being unbeaten on 140 in 208 minutes of brutal batting which brought him ten fours and three sixes off 162 deliveries.

This left Yorkshire the near impossible task of scoring 330 to win in 90 overs and the best they could hope for was a face-saving draw but they were spun out for a meagre 126 after paceman Martin Bicknell had disposed of the openers in a testing new ball spell.

Michael Vaughan was forced to bat with Gary Fellows as his runner after twisting his ankle in the dressing room the previous day but he was soon bowled by Bicknell who then had David Byas caught at second slip.

Saqlain Mushtaq and Ian Salisbury cut through the remainder of the batting with high quality spin bowling to which Yorkshire had no answer.

And even Darren Lehmann got out badly, the Australian star being deceived by Salisbury into attempting a big legside hit at a ball which ballooned to Brown who swooped at mid-wicket to hold a low catch.

Fellows hit a six off Saqlain and Chris Silverwood blasted consecutive balls from Salisbury into the crowd but they were only token gestures and Yorkshire were sent packing before tea, Saqlain snatching the last four wickets in nine balls to give him a final analysis of five for 41 and match figures of 11 for 104.

PPP healthcare County Championship

Division One

Surrey v Yorkshire

at the Foster's Oval

Surrey (16 pts) beat Yorkshire (4) by 203 runs

Surrey - 226 (A Hollioake 48, Sidebottom 5-40, Hoggard 4-70) & 345-8 dec (Brown 140no, Shahid 80, Middlebrook 4-119) v Yorkshire 242 (Vaughan 80, Lehmann 55, Mushtaq 6-54)

Yorkshire Second Innings

Byas c Brown b Bicknell 7 Vaughan b Bicknell 10

McGrath c A Hollioake b Mushtaq 22

Lehmann c Brown b Salisbury 17

Wood c A Hollioake b Salisbury 5

Blakey lbw b Salisbury 0

Fellows c Shahid b Mushtaq 18

Middlebrook c Salisbury b Mushtaq 11

Silverwood lbw b Mushtaq 18

Sidebottom not out 6

Hoggard lbw b Mushtaq 2

Extras b4 lb6 10

Total 126

Fall: 1-21 2-24 3-55 4-65 5-67 6-68 7-100 8-101 9-124

Bowling: Bicknell 8-4-17-2, Greenidge 6-2-18-0, B Hollioake 2-0-4-0, Mushtaq 17.4-5-41-5, Salisbury 15-4-36-3.