Cricket: Virtuoso Hamilton

Yorkshire 306 and 296 Glamorgan 266 and 222 Yorkshire win by 114 runs

YET ANOTHER three-day finish saw Yorkshire, and above all Gavin Hamilton, secure their fifth Championship win of the season by tea time yesterday.

Although the Yorkshire tail managed only to accumulate 24 more runs in the morning, the visitors could still ask Glamorgan to make the biggest total of the match to win. The wicket was laid with no devilish booby traps but was nevertheless a little deceitful, sometimes booming the ball through and on other occasions halting it slightly.

On the other hand, weather permitting, Glamorgan had the best part of two days to graft out 337 runs, and could afford to watch and wait. But only a determined afternoon stand between Adrian Dale and Mike Powell threatened to spoil the Scottish-qualified Hamilton's pleasant memories of Cardiff.

In his familiar role as a thoughtful fast-medium bowler, Hamilton took five wickets for 69 in Glamorgan's first innings. But by this time he had already hinted at his burgeoning all-rounder status by scoring a career- best 79 in Yorkshire's opening knock.

Second time round, he re-marked his guard yesterday morning on 64, and there was little shame in soon being castled by the brisk Owen Parkin - the bowler was himself in the process of establishing a career-best mark of 5 for 67. His efforts here with the bat mean that Hamilton has now passed 50 five times in his last nine innings, and has therefore emerged from Yorkshire's promising pack of young quick bowlers as a valuable middle- order asset.

The diligent stand between Dale, often a rock on the Glamorgan beach, and Powell, who announced himself last year with an undefeated 200 on his first-class debut, was worth 98 when the off-spinner James Middlebrook, a recent graduate of the Yorkshire Academy, fooled both of them in successive overs.

After the early demise of Wayne Law yesterday morning, Glamorgan were reduced to 22 for two when Steve James was adjudged caught at slip from a looping gloved attempt at a hook off the fast Matthew Hoggard, though the batsman only felt the ball on his helmet.

After Glamorgan's hopes had been raised by the repair-work of Dale and Powell, Hamilton returned to end the match. His five for 43 was his second career-best of the match, one with bat and one with ball, and gave him his first 10-wicket tally.