Yorkshire stayed bang on course for promotion after Ian Harvey destroyed Derbyshire yesterday by grabbing five wickets for 40 runs on the first day of the Championship match.

The Australian's haul was Yorkshire's best return of the season and helped bowl out the bottom-of-the-table club for 216 after they had been put in to bat.

Matthew Wood and Joe Sayers then took part in a century opening stand and at the close Yorkshire were 117 for one, only 99 behind.

It was the first time since joining Yorkshire two years ago that Harvey had taken five wickets in an innings and, with the Tykes needing a win to be certain of going up, his improved form could not have come at a more appropriate moment.

Craig White's decision to insert Derbyshire was beginning to look suspect at 103 for one but once opener Steve Stubbings departed for 63, the batting quickly crumbled.

Stubbings and fellow left-hander Ben France made untroubled progress to 63 before Tim Bresnan achieved the breakthrough as France dragged a drive to Deon Kruis at mid-on.

Stubbings had completed his eighth half-century of the season by the time Chris Bassano fell lbw pushing forward at Harvey.

Apart from one drop by Matthew Wood, Yorkshire's catching was excellent and Anthony McGrath made no mistake at second slip when Stubbings edged Mark Cleary, who struck again by hitting Hassan Adnan on the back pad to have him lbw.

Another splendid slip catch by McGrath brought Kruis the wicket of Jon Moss and White flung his hands high at gully to hold captain Luke Sutton's sliced drive off Harvey, who quickly mopped up, leaving Ant Botha stranded on 28.

Although Yorkshire's bowlers were on the mark, the batting was brittle and Derbyshire look like extending their unenviable record of not having won a home Championship match since June 1, 2002.

They also remain on course for not winning a Championship game during an entire season for the first time since 1924, while Yorkshire can go undefeated throughout a summer for the first time since 1928.

With maximum bowling points in the bag, Yorkshire's next goal was to gather in five batting points and Wood and Sayers began the journey towards a 400-plus total by adopting a no-frills approach.

Sayers should have gone for 42 when he edged Tom Lungley but wicketkeeper Sutton dived in front of Stubbings at first slip and spilled the catch.

The century stand was the third between the pair this season and Wood went on to a faultless half-century. But with 113 added, Sayers was out for 46, playing Welch off his body and into the stumps.