Yorkshire Phoenix brought to a close their most disastrous one-day season when they were torn to shreds by totesport League Second Division champions, Sussex Sharks at Hove yesterday.

Sussex needed to win the match to deny Durham the title but they were never put under pressure by Yorkshire, who collapsed to a miserable 99 all out and the Sharks glided home with 20.2 overs and eight wickets to spare.

Although happy to achieve their main aim of gaining promotion in the Championship, Yorkshire had little to shout about in this competition and they ended it with a run of eight consecutive defeats.

An eight o'clock fire alarm at the team's hotel in Brighton was too late in the morning to be used as an excuse for Yorkshire's sleepy batting performance after they had been inserted.

Their troubles began in the fifth over when Matthew Wood was lbw to James Kirtley on a poor pitch with insufficient bounce.

Michael Lumb drove Kirtley high over long-off for six but as soon as Robin Martin-Jenkins came on he spooned up a catch to Mushtaq Ahmed and fellow left-hander, Joe Sayers, was bowled off his pad by seamer, Luke Wright, who claimed three for 20 in his nine overs.

The best delivery was reserved for Ian Harvey when Martin-Jenkins seamed one away and found the edge for wicketkeeper, Tim Ambrose, to hold a low catch, and Wright's excellent return catch as he dived down the pitch sent back Tim Bresnan without scoring.

Simon Guy again found himself in the situation of trying to drag Yorkshire to respectability and he scored a nimble 29 off 45 balls with three good-looking boundaries before he was lbw sweeping at Mushtaq Ahmed.

Rana Navad-ul-Hassan brought the innings to a close by bowling Mark Lawson and Steven Patterson with middle stump yorkers.

Rana gave away only 11 runs for his two wickets off seven overs and Yorkshire's innings lasted for just 32 overs.

Yorkshire managed to creep above their lowest score against Sussex of 89 at Hove seven years ago but their score was insufficient to give the bowlers any real hope, despite Kruis flattening Matt Prior's off-stump in his first over.

Richard Montgomerie and captain, Chris Adams, carefully moved Sussex towards their target with a 60 stand in 18 overs before Lawson snared Montgomerie into giving a return catch when he tried to flick a turning ball to leg.

Patterson continued to show promise by bowling five tight overs which only yielded 12 runs, but Adams and Ambrose suddenly took the attack to Lawson and the season came to a close with Adams' lofted drive for four, which left him unbeaten on 49 from 83 balls with seven boundaries.

Crowds gathered on the field to watch their team receive the trophy, while Yorkshire quietly got into their cars and made for home after their exhausting end-of-season tour.

Yorkshire came within a session-and-a-half of going through a championship season without defeat for the first time since 1928 before succumbing by an innings and 21 runs at Northampton on Saturday.

The one consolation was that even a draw would not have lifted them into second place in the table above Durham. Victory would have seen them finish top and they would have taken home £30,000 in prizemoney, but they got nothing other than promotion for coming third.

Northamptonshire spinners Monty Panesar and Jason Brown both took ten wickets in the match.

It was the first time two bowlers have done this against Yorkshire since Dick Pougher and George Hilliard for Leicestershire at Leicester in 1894.

Panesar took the first five wickets in the second innings and Brown did the rest. He was held up by Ian Harvey and Craig White, who added 79 in 17 overs for the seventh wicket before Rob White caught his namesake for 35.