Excellent Dom Bess completed first-innings figures of 7-179 from a marathon 70.4 overs on day four as Yorkshire and Middlesex played out the final day for a draw at Headingley.
Middlesex started day four on 441-5 in their first-innings reply to 601-6 declared and were bowled out for 522 just before lunch, with Ben Coad’s seam accounting for the other three wickets.
Two of those were bowled, including Middlesex’s top-scorer Ryan Higgins for 155.
Just before lunch, Yorkshire started their second innings with a lead of 79. They were 150-2 from 35 overs when bad light stopped play at 4.10pm. There was no more play possible.
Opener Adam Lyth made 62 before tea and James Wharton reached 50 not out.
Yorkshire claimed 13 points to Middlesex’s 11 from this 11th round draw.
Yorkshire in third are now just one point behind second-placed Middlesex with three rounds of this season’s Championship remaining. The race for promotion has certainly reached a thrilling crescendo, even if this fixture didn’t quite live up to that.
This was Yorkshire’s sixth draw, added to three wins and two defeats. Middlesex have also drawn six this season.
With leaders Sussex having claimed an innings win over Derbyshire at Hove this afternoon, they have moved 20 points clear of Yorkshire with three rounds remaining.
The White Rose are next in action against Leicestershire at the Uptonsteel County Ground, Grace Road, starting on September 9.
This was a contest which saw two first-innings centurions on either side; Jonny Bairstow and George Hill for Yorkshire and Sam Robson and Higgins for Middlesex.
Only two batters across the four days, played out on a placid pitch with the Kookaburra ball, failed to reach double figures with the bat.
Bess struck three times before lunch. He had Luke Hollman caught at second slip by Jonny Bairstow – one-handed at the third attempt, leaving Middlesex 441 for six.
Higgins reached his 150 off 252 balls. But he was next to go, bowled by Coad, who uprooted off and middle stumps. And when Coad bowled captain Toby Roland-Jones shortly after, Middlesex were 513-8 in the 169th over.
Bess then wrapped up the innings, and his third career seven-wicket haul, by getting Tom Helm caught at short-leg and Noah Cornwell brilliantly caught by a diving Jordan Thompson, who had to back peddle from mid-off.
Yorkshire started their second innings just before lunch with personal milestones and time in the middle the only obvious targets.
Lyth needed 105 to reach 1,000 Championship runs for the season.
Having shared 66 for the first wicket with Fin Bean, he reached his fifty in 63 balls after lunch in a calm manner.
But he fell short of a century and 1,000 when he drove Tom Helm’s seam to short cover on the verge of tea, leaving Yorkshire 149-2 in the 34th over.
The initial breakthrough for Middlesex had come when Bean was trapped lbw by Hollman’s leg-spin for 30, while Wharton went on to pull two of the three sixes he hit against spin.
Wharton reached his fifty immediately after tea, off 55 balls, but umpires White and Newell called a halt to play because of the light moments later.
Only 237 spectators watched day four.
