Yorkshire experienced defeat for the first time this season in the LV Championship at the Riverside on Saturday when Durham deservedly beat them by six wickets.

It was a disappointing result against a side Yorkshire had been hoping to complete the double over but at least they preserved their place at the top of the Division One table.

Durham's victory left them snapping at their heels, just four-and-a-half points behind and, although Yorkshire can still go on and finish up as champions, they now know that this will not be achieved without a lot of hard work.

Yorkshire lost their grip on the game on the third day when their bowlers were powerless to prevent Durham from reaching 481 to take a first-innings lead of 88 and then their batsmen fell apart under pressure.

And they had no-one in their pace attack who could exploit the conditions nearly so well as well as 38-year-old Ottis Gibson, who came out of the game with ten wickets, or Graham Onions, who bagged five in the second innings.

To give themselves any chance Yorkshire needed their last wicket pair of Jason Gillespie and Deon Kruis to add substantially to the slender lead of 130 when they stepped out on the final day with Yorkshire on 218 for nine.

That proved to be their final total because, with his second ball, Onions flattened Kruis' off-stump.

Skipper Darren Gough bowl-ed much better than Gillespie in a fiery opening burst which reduced Durham to 22 for two as he pinned Will Smith lbw on the back foot and had Gordon Muchall caught by Simon Guy leaping to his right.

It became 35 for three when Gough replaced Gillespie with Tim Bresnan, who bowled a short one which Kyle Coetzer attempted to hook but only succeeded in lobbing off his glove to Guy.

Yorkshire's early surge did not worry opener Michael Di Venuto, who advanced with some fierce cuts and cover drives to his half-century before following one from Gillespie which left him and finished up in Guy's gloves.

Dale Benkenstein had been happy to play a passive role during Di Venuto's dash and occupation of the crease continued to be his main aim until after lunch when he cut Gillespie for a boundary to move Durham into three figures.

It was a disappointing first Championship appearance of the season for Kruis, who gave away two consecutive boundaries to Benkenstein and could claim only one wicket in the match.

Adil Rashid was given a few overs but there were insufficient runs required for him to be a threat. Phil Mustard brought the game to a swift conclusion by striking the leg-spinner for ten runs off three balls.

Yorkshire's director of cricket Martyn Moxon, who left Riverside for Headingley Carn-egie shortly before the start of the season, paid credit to Durham said that Durham's first-innings lead of 88 had made things difficult for Yorkshire and too much damage was then done in the first 15 to 20 overs of their second innings.

"We would have settled to be top of the Championship table after five matches but I have been in the game a long time and know how it works," he said.

"We are certainly not complacent but any side can beat anyone over the course of a match and I now need to make sure that we get that extra ten per cent right which was missing."