Yorkshire stand every chance of staying wedged third from the bottom of the Division Two table unless they beat Glamorgan in their final Championship match of the season which began at Headingley today.

Although Yorkshire cannot complain about missing out on promotion in a disappointing season, they are better than their current lowly position suggests and if they can make it into fourth or fifth place it would be a fairer reflection of their form.

The decimation by the weather of their last two away matches and the heavy defeat by Durham at Scarborough mean that Yorkshire have picked up only 15 points from those three games, causing them to lose their grip on fourth place.

But they will have to perform much better than of late if they are to beat Glamorgan, who are in a celebratory mood after clinching promotion on Monday when they drew their game with Nottinghamshire.

Yorkshire's match with Glamorgan at Colwyn Bay was so badly affected by the weather that only 51 overs were possible but England's Simon Jones still managed to make the top half of the Yorkshire order jump around with nine hostile overs which brought him Anthony McGrath's wicket.

Jones is keen to turn in a good display to show England he is in top nick ahead of the winter Test tour of South Africa.

Meanwhile, Yorkshire's 19-year-old left-arm spinner David Wainwright, from Pontefract, who made his first team debut against Somerset at Taunton last week, has been upgraded from the Academy to a junior professional.

Wainwright only bowled three overs in the rain-ruined match at Taunton but director of cricket David Byas has been impressed with his development in the second team this year and he sees him as an excellent prospect.

Ajmal Shahzad (Bradford), Chris Gilbert (Scarborough), Chris Batchelor (Whitby), Adam Lyth (Whitby), Steve Patterson (Hull) and Dan Conway will all stay as contracted Academy players in 2005.

Phil Holdsworth (Northallerton) and Anthony Daniels (Tadcaster) will move up from Scholarships to the Academy.

Byas is now sorting out first and second team contracts for next season and these should be finalised within the next few days.

Updated: 10:25 Thursday, September 16, 2004