YORKSHIRE were sufficiently competitive to stop Glamorgan running away with the game at Colwyn Bay yesterday, but they will have to bat superbly to achieve the win they need to stay in the promotion hunt.

They did well in the morning to reach 422 and restrict Glamorgan's first innings lead to 44, and then they worked hard to make sure their opponents earned every run as they headed towards a declaration.

Glamorgan closed on 270 for four with an overall lead of 314 and it is worth noting that the biggest score Yorkshire have ever made to win a Championship match is 331 - and that was against Middlesex at Lord's back in 1910.

There was an early setback when Yorkshire resumed on 291 for four and still trailing by 175. Matthew Wood added only a couple of singles to his overnight score before pushing forward uncertainly at Robert Croft and being caught off bat and pad for 126 off 271 balls with 20 fours.

Nightwatchman Steve Kirby went for 11 but Richard Blakey and Andy Gray put on a crucial stand of 73 in 18 overs which denied Glamorgan a big lead.

Blakey then fell lbw to Michael Kasprowicz for 36 - his highest score since his double century in the opening match of the season - but Gray battled on to stay unbeaten on 48.

Darren Gough picked up his first wicket of the match in the opening over of Glamorgan's reply by pinning Jimmy Maher lbw but the batsmen were soon in control with Mark Wallace and Adrian Dale putting on 116 for the second wicket.

Miscued drives by Wallace and Matthew Maynard off Dawson were both safely held in the deep by Gray while Dale tickled one of Yuvraj Singh's many legside deliveries into Blakey's gloves.

Michael Powell closed on 81 with his second century of the match in sight and David Hemp was on 54.

* Yorkshire chief executive Colin Graves will be informed of the fury of the county's members following his remarks that the Championship should be reduced to between eight and ten matches.

The four elected representatives of Yorkshire's members' committee will inform Graves that they have been inundated with complaints about his views - and the fact that they do not reflect the opinion of the members at large.

One of representatives, Simon Parsons, said: "I sympathise with them and will be taking their comments back to Colin Graves."