Yorkshire squeezed one extra bowling point out of the final day of their rain-wrecked Championship match against Glamorgan at Headingley - but then lost a quarter of it through bowling their overs too slowly.

It is a slovenly habit they got into towards the end of last season and one which they must stamp out quickly because even a fraction of a point could mean the difference between promotion or staying in the Second Division.

Although the weather was the only real winner in this match, the seven-and-three-quarter points which Yorkshire gained from the draw were enough to keep them clinging on to the third promotion spot, thanks to Durham beating Derbyshire.

But they have now played a game more than the two teams immediately below them and unless they overcome Durham in their next match, which starts at Headingley on Friday, they could soon be in the bottom half of the table.

After a blank morning because of further heavy showers, Glamorgan resumed on 248 for eight.

But Yorkshire quickly acquired a third bowling point as Michael Kasprowicz was caught behind in the day's second over from Chris Silverwood to give wicketkeeper Richard Blakey his sixth dismissal of the innings.

It was the fourth time in his career that Blakey has claimed six victims, a feat performed more often for Yorkshire only by his predecessor, David Bairstow.

Kasprowicz and Mark Wallace had put on 94 together, a record for Glamorgan's ninth wicket against Yorkshire, and Bradford-born last man Alex Wharf then helped Wallace set a new last wicket record of 64, making it the first time in any Championship match that opponents have posted records for the last two wickets in the same innings.

The strongly-built former Yorkshire paceman walloped two mighty sixes and a four in one over from Steven Kirby, but the carnage was stopped when 18-year-old Tim Bresnan came on and captured his first Championship wicket by having Wallace caught at mid-off by Ryan Sidebottom for a sweetly-struck 94 from 163 balls with eight fours and two sixes, leaving Wharf unbeaten on 29.

Silverwood was Yorkshire's most effective bowler with four for 57, but it was still worrying that Glamorgan's last two wickets were able to add 158 runs without too much difficulty.

Yorkshire's seamers bowled too short and overstepped the mark far too often with 26 no-balls.

Yorkshire began their second innings after tea facing a deficit of 106, but captain Matthew Wood and Scott Richardson made sure there were no late shocks by putting on 105 for the first wicket to kill the game stone dead.

Richardson, badly in need of runs to keep his first-team place, reached his first half century of the season off 76 balls with six fours before being caught behind and there was just time for new Indian signing Yuvraj Singh to play himself in and acclimatise to English conditions.

Yuvraj batted soundly for 16 overs in compiling an unhurried 25 not out while Wood finished on 73 from 120 deliveries with ten fours.

l Middlesex batted out an inevitable draw on a fourth successive rain-ruined day which provided an apt conclusion to their Frizzell County Championship match against Leicestershire at Grace Road on Saturday.

The predictable stalemate was in doubt for only a fleeting few minutes just before lunch when the hosts nipped out two quick wickets, having fallen just three runs short of first-innings parity in 20 minutes of batting on Saturday morning.

But rain promptly wiped out another 27 overs to take the aggregate lost to 228 and allow Middlesex the breathing space to convert 65 for three into the safety of 142 for five before stumps were drawn.

Leicestershire coach Phil Whitticase summed up both sides' frustration with the weather.

It was particularly galling for the hosts, who have had three consecutive championship matches robbed of an outright result by the elements.

Whitticase's team avoided defeat by those means at Surrey, but he felt they might well have prevailed this time.

''It is a big statement to make, but I really fancied our chances of winning both matches against Essex and here against Middlesex,'' he said.

''Certainly this could have been a really interesting one."