In the three-year duration of the four-day format the counties occupying the top four places at this stage have always finished the summer in the first four, with the exception of Surrey, who have remained utterly unpredictable.

The top four this year are Kent, without a game today, Yorkshire, Leicestershire and - not again - Surrey, who are lurking for a third year.

H G Wells once commented that history was ``a race between education and catastrophe'', which would make a perceptive view of Yorkshire's last couple of decades.

Yorkshire, under David Byas, seem to have a grand chance of at least matching their best finish since 1975, when they were runners-up.

They meet Hampshire at Harrogate today, with Michael Bevan looking for a fifth consecutive championship fifty, which surprisingly has not been achieved since Geoff Boycott's sequence in 1982.

Struggling Worcestershire have dropped Tim Curtis, their veteran opener, for the visit of Durham, the only county still without a championship victory.

Essex, with no success since their two-win start, have Mark Ilott back after an ankle injury to strengthen their seam attack against Nottinghamshire. Graham Gooch needs 168 to pass Keith Fletcher's record county aggregate of 26,267 runs.