Skipper Anthony McGrath's superb innings against Glamorgan at Colwyn Bay was almost entirely responsible for Yorkshire scraping a draw and keeping alive - for a little while longer at least - their hopes of Championship promotion at the first time of asking.

His unbeaten 127 followed hard on the heels of his first innings 92 when only a mis-timed sweep prevented him going on to achieve a century in each innings for the first time in his career.

Glamorgan's Michael Powell, who had already hit a century in each innings against Worcestershire this season, came close to repeating the feat with scores of 146 and 85 and the record book suggests that Yorkshire may have stood a better chance of winning the match if Powell had succeeded.

Remarkably, the last three occasions when opposing batsmen have plundered a century in each innings of a Championship match, Yorkshire have gone on to win the game.

Glamorgan were also Yorkshire's opponents at the start of the sequence when Alan Jones made 132 and 156 not out at Acklam Park, Middlesbrough, in 1976, only for Geoff Boycott to blast an unbeaten 156 of his own to see Yorkshire home by seven wickets.

Then, at Trent Bridge in 1988, Franklyn Stephenson rapped out 111 and 117 for Nottinghamshire in addition to bagging 11 wickets, but Yorkshire still went on to win by 127 runs as Notts collapsed to the medium pace of Stuart Fletcher, who captured 6-74.

Finally, Stuart Law hammered 159 and 113 not out for Essex at Chelmsford four years ago but Michael Vaughan matched him with 100 and 151 and Essex succumbed to the spin of Ian Fisher and lost by 174 runs.

Updated: 11:11 Saturday, September 06, 2003