Yorkshire were left clutching at straws towards the end of the season and they grabbed one by holding on to third place in the Frizzell Championship's Second Division to achieve their main aim of winning promotion in the most important of all the competitions.

Had they finished with eight fewer points, however, they would not have got back into the top flight, then the season would have been looked upon as a disaster.

Although they made it through to the semi-finals of the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy, where they were whacked by Hampshire on a farcical day at Southampton, they went to pieces in the totesport League after making the most promising of starts with three consecutive victories.

A double promotion was being confidently predicted in those early days but then followed an alarming decline which sent them plunging down the totesport table.

Their eight-wicket mauling by Sussex Sharks at Hove last Sunday was the 13th consecutive defeat they suffered against county opposition, the only victories they managed after May 1 being home and away wins against Scotland.

It all added up to the worst season in their history in National League cricket and nobody seemed able to pinpoint exactly what had gone wrong.

For whatever reason, Yorkshire were unable to take a grip on games and more often than not they were beaten by huge margins.

In many matches, the batsmen simply did not score enough runs to leave the bowlers with any hope of polishing opponents off and the bowlers themselves were generally quite ineffective.

Yorkshire achieved their successes in early season while captain, Craig White, was picking up 13 wickets at under nine runs apiece. But once his dodgy knee stopped him from turning his arm over, no other bowler was able to step up.

White also had a dismal season with the bat in the totesport League and he dropped out of the side in the latter part of the summer, which must have left the team feeling they were drifting along without a rudder.

His absence from these games must place a question mark over his future as captain because director of cricket, David Byas, is not likely to be in favour of appointing two leaders - one for first-class matches and the other for limited overs cricket.

White, however, remains a figure who commands huge respect from his players and he insists that he has never enjoyed playing for Yorkshire more than in the past season.

His batting in the Championship has been consistently good and he has helped to shore things up in the middle order, but his failure to bowl left Yorkshire less well balanced than they would have liked.

The one-day disasters were made easier to swallow as a result of promotion in the Championship, players and fans alike being able to hold their heads high now that the team is back in the top flight.

They have got there chiefly through some outstanding cricket by four players in particular - Deon Kruis, Anthony McGrath, Phil Jaques and Tim Bresnan, with a little help from Ian Harvey.

The signing shortly before the start of the season as a Kolpak player of South African paceman, Kruis, was a master stroke because without his sustained efforts Yorkshire would surely have floundered.

Relatively unknown outside his own country before joining Yorkshire, Kruis got through 584.3 overs without once breaking down and he captured 64 wickets at 30.64 apiece.

He bowled more overs and grabbed more wickets than any other paceman in the Championship and he claimed five wickets in an innings on four occasions.

Now Kruis has been handed a two-year contract and he will have to shoulder a lot more hard work next season if Yorkshire are to stay in the First Division.

Kruis was magnificently supported throughout the summer by 20-year-old Tim Bresnan, who also steered clear of injury, and to bowl 459 overs and claim 47 wickets was a tremendous effort.

Bresnan's batting also improved substantially and why he has not gained an Academy and England A place this winter is a mystery, but Yorkshire will not be complaining if they can continue to play him on a regular basis over the next few years.

Like last season, Jaques was in scorching form with the bat and when he bid Yorkshire farewell to join up with Australia A in Pakistan he had scored 1,359 Championship runs with four centuries at the princely average of 64.71.

But Jaques was not alone in playing some majestic innings because McGrath was equally as productive in his best season. He stroked five centuries, topped 1,000 first-class runs for the first time and went on to make 1,425 at an average of 59.37.

McGrath's tour-de-force came against Leicestershire at Grace Road when he plundered an unbeaten 165 to bring Yorkshire their first ever win when chasing a 400-plus target.

But his batting against Worcestershire at Headingley recently was even more awesome. He twice made mincemeat of Shoaib Akhtar while racking up 173 not out and 65 not out, but his efforts came to nought because rain robbed Yorkshire of victory when they were only a short distance from the finishing line.

Harvey, in his last season with Yorkshire as an overseas player, did much better than the previous year with both bat and ball, and the batting had a stronger look to it once Joe Sayers was able to establish a regular place in the side.

The left-handed Sayers scored his maiden century in the return match with Leicestershire at Scarborough when Yorkshire again reached 400 to win and it was the team's new-found ability to chase stiff targets that helped substantially in the push towards promotion.