CLOSE - HAMPSHIRE 244-4 (CARBERRY 113*, POTHAS 34*) AFTER 60.3 OVERS IN REPLY TO YORKSHIRE'S 195 (INZAMAN 51)

It may not have the same prestige as finishing in the Premiership's top four, but Hampshire have virtually assured themselves a place in the County Championship's leading quartet.

As the pre-season favourites to win the title, that will come as little consolation to a side that lost the chance to win the Championship with heavy defeats against bottom-half-of-the-table outfits in the last two home matches of the season.

When Hampshire's players look back on the season during the winter they will recall the innings-and-37-run reverse against Surrey, and last week's ten-wicket hammering against Kent, as the results that cost them the title.

They may also be watching Stuart Clark's performances for Australia in the Twenty20 World Cup with a feeling of what-might-have-been if the matches he played for Hampshire in May and June had not been so rain-affected.

However, the glass is half full from where this observer is sitting.

While it will not be rewarded with prize money, never mind the guarantee of several million pounds that comes with qualification for football's Champions League, Hampshire have probably already done enough to leapfrog Yorkshire and claim a place in the County Championship's top four.

That is no mean feat in a season that has seen Chris Tremlett and Dimitri Mascarenhas graduate to the England squad, and David Griffiths, David Balcombe and Liam Dawson all make their first-team debuts.

A point behind Yorkshire before the start of this match, Hampshire denied the home side a batting point by bowling them out for 195, and had gained one of their own by the time bad light brought the second day to a premature close.

The forecast for Leeds tomorrow is appalling, so much so that it would not be surprising if there is no play at all.

Another 34.5 overs were lost to bad light and rain today, following the loss of 51.3 overs on Wednesday, so this match appears to be heading towards a draw despite a good forecast for Saturday. There is the possibility of Darren Gough and Shane Warne engineering an interesting last-day finish but that is the only way Yorkshire can get the win that would keep them in the top half of the table.

Leaders for much of the season, they may even finish sixth if Surrey beat Lancashire at the Brit Oval.

Any lingering hope Hampshire may have of winning the title should be gone some time tomorrow afternoon, when Durham are likely to finish off Kent at Canterbury.

Lancashire, who led going into the last round of games, are in danger of suffering title heartbreak, while Sussex could still retain the Championship by beating Worcestershire at Hove.

For Hampshire, finishing fourth would be no disgrace.

To end the season with a morale-boosting draw, if not a win, would soothe some balm on the pain of those last two Rose Bowl performances.

James Bruce took his second five-wicket haul of the season, and the third of his career, to reach 39 Championship wickets, after Yorkshire resumed on 161-7 this morning.

In taking 5-73 he surpassed last year's haul of 38 as the biggest of his career.

Bruce had Tim Bresnan caught at cover and Matthew Hoggard pouced at second slip before David Balcombe wrapped up the innings when Gough's 34-ball 25 ended with a top-edged pull to Nic Pothas.

Bruce's achievement was overshadowed by Michael Carberry, whose unbeaten 113 (167 balls) included a slog-swept six against Adil Rashid.

Three of the left-hander's 17 fours came in succession against England's Matthew Hoggard to take him to his fifth Championship hundred of the season and his third in five innings.

He also reached 1,000 Championship runs in a season for the first time in his career when he pulled Deon Kruis to the fence to go to 46.

Carberry made Jaques Rudolph pay for dropping a low chance at first slip against the bowling of Kruis when he was on 55.

He was still there at the close but Hampshire lost John Crawley and Michael Lumb in quick succession during a Bresnan over shortly before tea.

Crawley departed for 57 (89 balls) when he edged to second slip and Michael Lumb, having received a warm reception in his first game at Headingley since turning down a new Yorkshire contract a year ago, ran himself out for a two-ball duck.

Attempting a quick single to mid-off from the second ball he faced, he was sent back to the pavilion following a direct hit by Andrew Gale before Nic Pothas (34*) helped Carberry add 65 for the fifth wicket, as Hampshire reached 244-4 at stumps.