Yorkshire's five wicket win over Kent on Saturday was their eighth and best win of the season, and it pushed them to within one point of second placed Leicestershire in the PPP Championship table.

Now they will be going all out to beat Glamorgan at Headingley this week and then new champions Surrey at The Oval to end the season as runner's-up for the first time since 1975.

The splendid win against high-flyers Kent will also have weakened the hand of those Yorkshire committee members who will this week try to persuade the club to take on an overseas manager.

Those who prefer no change to the present system can now argue that, despite the recent slump, Yorkshire are enjoying their most successful all-round summer in years with one cup final appearance, plus a semi-final and now the virtual certainty of Division One championship cricket when the competition splits into two parts next year.

Yorkshire's hopes of finishing Kent off quickly on the final morning soon disappeared as Julian Thompson and Steve Marsh dashed up 75 together in 26 overs for the seventh wicket.

But Kent's progress was rapidly halted once the new ball became available and Ryan Sidebottom and Chris Silverwood each claimed a couple of wickets as the last four went down for seven runs in five overs, leaving Yorkshire to make 140 to win in two full sessions.

Matthew Wood and Michael Vaughan gave them a good start with an opening stand of 40 before Wood was caught behind off Dean Headley and it became 45 for two as David Byas was lbw to Thompson.

But Vaughan batted just as smoothly as in the first inning when he hit 153 and he reached an elegant half century off 58 balls with eight fours. But in attempting to blast left-arm spinner Min Patel for a third boundary in the over he was stumped.

Anthony McGrath was then lbw to Patel without scoring and the fifth wicket fell at 93 when Richard Blakey was bowled to become the spinner's third victim.

Yorkshire went in to tea on a tense 98 for five but the youthful approach of Gary Fellows blended well with the experience of Richard Harden after the interval to see Yorkshire home.

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