CRICKET: Yorkshire underlined their Britannic Assurance Champ-ionship winning credentials with a resounding 164 run win over second-placed Surrey at Headingley, yesterday.

And once again their bowlers came up trumps when it mattered most.

This time it was paceman Chris Silverwood, somewhat overshadowed in recent weeks by his colleagues, who wrecked the Surrey innings.

Silverwood took five for 30 as Surrey tumbled to 135 all out.

The win takes Yorkshire to joint fourth in the table with Gloucestershire 21 points adrift of leaders Leicester-shire who have 244.

But if Silverwood took the bowling honours it was fit again Craig White who will have taken most satisfaction from the win.

He returned after a lengthy lay off to open the innings and celebrated with a fifty and a century.

The England all-rounder had just had time to complete his eighth championship century in the morning before Yorkshire declared on 196 for four which left Surrey to make exactly 300 off a minimum of 88 overs.

But apart from Ben Hollioake, who blazed his way to 60 off 66 balls with 13 scorching boundaries, Surrey simply caved in against yet more dynamic bowling and they were fired out for 135 shortly before tea.

Silverwood did most of the damage but Gavin Hamilton again forced his way into the picture by claiming four for 22 to finish with career-best match figures of 11 for 72.

They were the best figures ever recorded against Surrey at Headingley, beating into second place the 11 for 43 by Wilfred Rhodes in 1911, and they were the best against Surrey anywhere since Fred Trueman captured 14 for 123 at The Oval in 1960.

The Surrey slide started before a run was on the board as Silverwood trapped England opener Mark Butcher lbw and in his next over he had the other opener, Ian Ward, caught at gully by Michael Vaughan.

Alec Stewart's drive at Hamilton ended up in White's hands at first slip and a beautiful delivery from Matthew Hoggard had Alistair Brown caught behind off the ball before lunch.

Nadeem Shahid and skipper Adam Hollioake both perished against Hamilton after the interval and Yorkshire were held up for a while as Ben Hollioake did practically all the scoring in a 54 stand with Jon Batty who was lbw when Silverwood returned to destroy the tail.

Fittingly, it was Hamilton who ended Ben Hollioake's fling by knocking his off-stump clean out of the ground.

Now Yorkshire will be looking forward to their last two games of the season against Warwickshire and Sussex

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