YORKSHIRE maintained their position as the leaders of the LV= County Championship by easing past Sussex by nine wickets at Scarborough today, their sixth win of the season.

With second-placed Nottinghamshire beating Northamptonshire at Wantage Road, they were only able to extend their lead at the top by a point to six with three matches left. But every little helps.

Andrew Gale’s side clinched a maximum haul of 24 points by bowling Sussex out for 230 just before tea on day four after they had started the day at 98-4 in their second innings and still 27 runs in arrears.

That left Yorkshire a target of 106 in the remaining 39 overs, one they achieved for the loss of only Alex Lees for 46 inside 21.

At exactly the same stage of the season last year, Yorkshire lost to Durham here, a result which ultimately cost them the title.

“We learned some really good lessons from that game last year,” said coach Jason Gillespie.

“When we had our foot on the throat, we had to keep it there. We don’t let the opposition off the hook. We did that with the bat in this match. We were under a little bit of pressure, but we fought back.

“Then with the ball, they had some partnerships, but we were patient. They were the lessons we learnt from last year. The lads are in a really good place.

“To come back and win by nine wickets after being 9-2 having put them in and they’ve scored over 360, it’s an incredibly pleasing result. That just shows there’s a lot of belief in the camp.”

Patience definitely was the key for Yorkshire yesterday as Luke Wright’s third century of the season, an excellent 113, ensured they went wicketless until the penultimate over of the morning session.

He shared 127 for the fifth wicket with Steffan Piolet (32) before the latter was trapped lbw by Steve Patterson to leave the score at 175-5, a lead of 50.

Wickets then fell regularly through the afternoon as Patterson, Tim Bresnan (3-60) and Adil Rashid all struck twice.