No alarms for Yorkshire CCC as they thrash Derbyshire at the Scarborough festival

Although the plight of this correspondent might attract little sympathy, rendering these ramblings more unreadable than usual, at least spare a thought for the Derbyshire team.

As if their woes were not sufficiently considerable (506 runs behind with nine wickets left going into day four), they were also staying at the same accommodation.

According to a letter pushed beneath the door of every hotel guest, the alarm was activated by “smoke in a sensitive area” and the result of “external foul play”; rumours that Darren Gough and Ottis Gibson were helping police with their inquiries were, of course, scurrilous.

Not that there was any need for “external foul play” instigated by Yorkshire.

Bleary-eyed though they may have been when they got to North Marine Road, Derbyshire could frankly have spent the previous night in a monastery for all the good it might have done them as they set about achieving an improbable draw - or an even more improbable win - having been second-best for much of the match.

Sure enough, despite flirting with both possibilities when they were 198-2 twenty minutes before lunch, with Wayne Madsen in full flow en route to his second score of 93 in the game, Derbyshire succumbed midway through the afternoon session.

Bowled out for 293, they were comprehensively thumped by 277 runs, off-spinner Dom Bess leading the way with 4-79 and pace bowler Matty Revis taking 3-66.

Gibson, the Yorkshire head coach, whose side were later deducted two points for a slow over-rate, said: “It was a good team performance - probably the best performance since I’ve been here to be honest.

“The attitude of the guys - the things that we spoke about, sticking to plans, and so on, was excellent.

“We’ve been playing some decent four-day cricket, and if not for the weather we would have won a few more games, so it was good to get four days of (good) weather and for the lads to perform the way that they did was fantastic.

“This game promises you nothing; you work hard, and sometimes you work hard and don’t get what you feel you deserve, but we deserved this.”

With the Yorkshire team happily holed up in a different part of Scarborough, where the only night-time sound likely to disturb them was that of lapping waves, the hosts took to the field as fresh as one can be at this late stage of the season.

They were without Matty Fisher, though, the pace bowler who has what was described as “a mild side strain”, the latest ailment to afflict this most affable, talented yet unfortunate of cricketers, who sent down 16 overs in the first innings for 3-54.

“It’s unfortunate, and hopefully the injury won’t hang around for too long,” said Gibson.

“We’ll see how he goes in the next couple of days in terms of the next match (against Glamorgan at Cardiff, starting on Sunday).”

Play began beneath ideal overheads from Yorkshire’s point of view, with the first cloud cover of the match obligingly rolling in. It didn’t take too long for it to burn off – perhaps half an hour or so - by which time Yorkshire had their first wicket of the day after Derbyshire resumed on 65-1.

Ben Coad was the successful bowler, Brooke Guest perhaps surprised by the bounce as he gave catching practice to Adam Lyth at second slip. Enter Madsen...

The 39-year-old, a Rembrandt among the lesser paintings of his team-mates, signalled his intent by coming down the pitch to Coad and lofting him into the Trafalgar Square stand, an outrageous shot.

Did Madsen think that he could actually win it?

It seemed so, as he set about the Yorkshire attack with the air of a man who, if he was going to go down, was going to go down trying to hit a century before lunch at the very least.

However, after Jordan Thompson broke a second-wicket stand of 127 from 126 balls between Harry Came and Madsen, the former contributing a relatively sedate 58 from 145 deliveries, Madsen fell four balls later, lbw trying to sweep Bess.

Madsen, who faced 71 balls and hit 14 fours and three sixes, departed to an appreciative ovation from a crowd that numbered 949.

By now, however, the main cheering was for Yorkshire. When Bess then trapped Leus du Plooy on the crease for a ninth-ball duck, followed by Thompson finding Matthew Lamb’s inside-edge, the visitors had lost four wickets in as many overs to slide to 201-6 on the stroke of lunch.

After that little fiasco, there was no way back for them.

Five balls after the break, it was 211-7, Matty Revis producing a climbing delivery that Alex Thomson edged behind.

As a watery sun disappeared and sea fret began to sweep across the ground, recalling the John Carpenter film The Fog, Anuj Dal and Zak Chappell frustrated Yorkshire with an eighth-wicket stand of 78, riding their luck at times but also playing some pleasing shots.

Eventually, Chappell chanced his arm once too often, skying Revis high to Bess at square-leg. After Sam Conners lofted Revis to substitute fielder Ben Cliff at long-leg, Bess finished things off when Dal advanced down the pitch and stumped.