Yorkshire picked up their first trophy of the season on Saturday - the Durham Light Infantry Cup - and the way they are playing at the moment suggests it may not be the last they will lay their hands on.

Their easy nine wicket win over Durham, achieved in two days and 90 minutes, has shot them up into fourth place in the PPP Championship table and left them just 11 points behind leaders Hampshire.

But it is Yorkshire Phoenix who started top-of-the-table in today's CGU National League Division One clash at Headingley - with opponents Hampshire Hawks trying to narrow the six point gap between the sides.

Yorkshire's victory against Durham was their sixth in a row against them in the championship and it means they continue to hold the Durham Light Infantry Cup, formerly the Lahore Trades Cup, which was played for from 1907-27 at football by British Regiments in India.

The DLI became outright winners and it was agreed the four-foot high silver trophy should be competed for annually in championship matches between Durham and Yorkshire when Durham acquired first class status in 1992, but they are still awaiting their first win.

The Cup was presented to Yorkshire captain David Byas by Major (Retd) R.S. Cross before being taken back under guard to the Light Infantry museum in Durham.

Although Durham were outplayed for most of the game they showed some fighting spirit in the morning when Martin Speight and John Wood resumed their eighth wicket stand at 148 for seven with 48 still required to make Yorkshire bat again.

Craig White, bowling from the Kirkstall Lane end, and Chris Silverwood posed few problems early on and it was not until they switched ends that Durham's late resistance began to crumble.

It was Speight who attacked the more strongly at first but Wood soon gained in confidence and he thumped White for consecutive fours through the off-side to rush the stand on to 54 and leave Durham only one run in arrears.

Then Silverwood, who had been replaced by Ryan Sidebottom, took over from White at the Kirkstall Lane end and sent Wood's middle stump flying spectacularly out of the ground with a ball which was far too fast for him.

Speight retaliated by picking up Sidebottom and placing him high over backward square leg for six with a remarkable shot from outside off-stump and smacking him his next ball through the covers for four.

But then White came on for Sidebottom and his inswinging yorker breached Simon Brown's defences, leaving Silverwood to pick out last man Steve Harmison's off-stump.

Yorkshire needed to make 16 to win and it seemed like gentle batting practice for Michael Vaughan and Greg Blewett until they were just two short of their target when Vaughan received one of the best balls of the match from Melvyn Betts which he edged into Speight's gloves.

Yorkshire took 19 points from the match on a pitch which was inspected by the ECB after 16 wickets had fallen on the first day.

No further action will be taken, however, and groundsman Andy Fogarty admitted that it was insufficient watering which had led to cracks to appear, his work on the pitch being hindered by World Cup preparations.

Byas later defended the pitch and said that it was the swinging ball which had been responsible for most of the wickets going down in the first innings and he complimented his bowlers on the way they had made full use of the conditions to dismiss Durham for 114.

"A couple of wickets in the first innings of each side may have been due to variable bounce but the rest went down because the ball was put in the right areas," he said.

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