Yorkshire writer David Warner believes stamina and Craig White's fitness will be key if the Tykes are to make a real success of their return to the First Division.

WILL Yorkshire prove to have the staying power and stamina that has so often deserted them in recent years?

If the answer is 'yes' then the club will have been revitalised on the field as well as off it.

But if they run out of fuel like they did last summer, when they did not win a game of any sort against county opposition after July 23, they could be in serious trouble.

Director of Cricket, David Byas, has again made sure his players will start the season in fine fettle but he knows from experience that it is how they shape up physically and mentally from August onwards that really counts.

The signing of Australian Jason Gillespie has given Yorkshire's fast bowling an extra cutting edge, which should make it even sharper than last season when South African Deon Kruis and the everimproving Tim Bresnan bowled their hearts out all summer.

But if Yorkshire are to compete strongly in the first division they must get more out of their spinners in the second half of the season than they managed last year.

Richard Dawson, their senior slow bowler, missed the last two Championship matches with a badly broken knuckle bone, but the fragility of their spin resources was exposed in the finale at Northampton.

Youngsters David Wainwright and Mark Lawson shared two wickets at a combined cost of 236 runs, while Northamptonshire's Monty Panesar and Jason Brown grabbed all 20 Yorkshire wickets to bring the home side victory by an innings and 21 runs.

Dawson is now back to full health but he was consistent rather than spectacular with the ball last season and will be looking to improve on his 27 Championship wickets at 40.66 runs apiece.

At least the slow bowling department should be boosted by the return of Darren Lehmann, whose left-arm spin has gone on improving ever since he first joined Yorkshire. In his last season here in 2004, he took 14 Championship wickets and ten in the Sunday League and it will be surprising if he does not chip in regularly again.

Lehmann's return and the signing of Gillespie means Yorkshire have reluctantly had to dispense with the services of Phil Jaques, now with Worcestershire, plus another Australian in Ian Harvey, who has gone back to Gloucestershire.

Harvey performed much better for Yorkshire last summer than he did during a disappointing 2004 and the hope is that some of his runs will be scored by the newlysigned wicketkeeper-batsman, Gerard Brophy, from Northamptonshire.

Brophy broke a finger while keeping against Yorkshire at Headingley early last May but now he's up for the challenge and eager to prove to Northants that his best days are still ahead of him.

Bradford-born Anthony McGrath enjoyed his best season last year, when he blazed the trail with 1,425 Championship runs to finish as their leading scorer and he needs to keep the momentum going, while Otley-born Joe Sayers must make big scores more regularly now that he has established himself in the side.

Matthew Wood and particularly Michael Lumb will want to show better batting form than in 2005, otherwise their places could be under threat from the likes of Richard Pyrah and Andrew Gale.

There is no shortage of other youngsters putting pressure on their seniors and Australian fast bowler Mitch Claydon, pacemen Steven Patterson and Nick Thornicroft, and all-rounders Ajmal Shahzad and Chris Gilbert will all be pressing hard if Yorkshire start to run out of steam again.

CRAIG White has two seasons left in him in which to lead Yorkshire to further glory - but even that timescale is probably dependant upon whether his dodgy knee can stand up to the rigours of two summers of hard cricket.

The Yorkshire captain is contracted until the end of 2007, by which time he will be coming up 38, and although his future is not yet mapped out it is reasonable to assume that his playing days will by then be coming to an end.

White's 873 Championship runs last season from the middle order at an average of 48.5 had much to do with Yorkshire's successful push for promotion, but his inability to bowl as the season wore on was one of the main contributing factors in his side's slump down the Sunday League table.

With his knee becoming ever sorer, despite surgery the previous winter, he was forced to drop out of the one-day side and with the attack clearly lacking bite Yorkshire finished the summer with eight consecutive Sunday League defeats, the worst sequence in their history.

Unless Yorkshire suffer a spate of injuries to their seamers they have enough quality bowlers to do an effective job in the Championship, but they need White's surprise pace and extra bounce in one-day cricket if they are to do well in the revamped Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy and the Sunday League.

White acknowledges the importance of being able to get through more overs than he managed last season, when he grabbed 20 wickets at miserly cost in the first seven one-day matches but hardly bowled again after that.

"I had a tidying up operation on my knee last autumn and hopefully I will now be able to get two more years out of it, " said White.

"I accept that it cannot be a coincidence that we didn't perform well in limited overs cricket once I stopped bowling and I want to be able to contribute more. But in the Championship I will probably only come on now and again to give the big boys a rest.

"I have not bowled in the indoor nets because I did not want to do too much too early but I will start to build it up now."

Well before Yorkshire clinched promotion last season, White was saying that he had never enjoyed his cricket so much and he is showing the same enthusiasm for the new campaign.

"I have got an excellent set of players to work with and they all know what is required of them, " said White. "They have been given a bit more responsibility to sort out their own games and I am sure they will respond to that."

Although Yorkshire slipped a bit in the Championship last season before taking third place to gain promotion, White is convinced that his side are capable of becoming champions.

"Nottinghamshire won the Championship last season after coming straight up and I see no reason why we cannot do the same, " he said.

"Jason Gillespie and Deon Kruis should give us one of the sharpest new-ball attacks in the country and with Tim Bresnan in the front-line and several others pushing hard we should be able to pose a few problems for batsmen.

"We certainly won't be fearing anyone in the first division because we are only back where we should be.

"I thought there were some excellent units in the second division last season and with all counties recruiting top players I don't think there is a big gap between the divisions."

White is still unable to put his finger on exactly why Yorkshire slumped so badly in the one-day game last year but that's all history now so far as he is concerned.

"We're ready for a fresh start and if we can get a couple of wins early doors all will be forgotten."

White is looking forward to the fresh ideas that the experienced Gillespie will bring to the side once his short tour to Bangladesh with Australia is over and he's also enthusiastic about the return of his own evergreen brother-inlaw, Darren Lehmann.

"Darren's had a fantastic season captaining South Australia and scoring lots of runs, including his first triple century, " he said.

"He just gets better with age."