"We don't want to finish bottom" - Yorkshire CCC head coach Ottis Gibson

As sea mist spread across the grand old ground, so much of it, in fact, that the venue would eventually become enveloped to the extent that play would have been called off at some point during the final session, they formed a celebratory circle midway between the pitch and the pavilion.

As a means of avoiding autograph hunters keen for signatures to commemorate the win, as they lingered patiently around the dressing rooms, it was a stroke of genius; why, not even the most ardent fan would have dared to stride out waving his autograph book and tried to ‘break the circle’.

In reality, of course, it was nothing of the sort, just a demonstration - and a very public one - of Yorkshire’s team spirit and togetherness, and the imperative, in their eyes, of celebrating victory; this was only their third, after all, in the County Championship since they beat Somerset at the same ground two years earlier.

Much water has passed under the bridge since then; the entire coaching staff has been removed, for one, and the club, as it was, effectively destroyed.

For evidence that the ramifications continue one need look no further than the latest talk of a takeover bid by the Indian Premier League franchise Rajasthan Royals, with its potential consequence for Yorkshire’s status as a members’ club.

Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group are also in talks about purchasing Headingley and leasing it back to the club to enable it to pay off loans and to generate working capital, less than two decades after the club completed a protracted fight to buy the ground with the help of a loan from Leeds City Council.

There is no end, it seems, to the turbulence caused by the off-field events.

On the field, too, as that celebratory circle unwittingly showed, the implications have been considerable and damaging.

Yorkshire - the biggest county in England, the winner of the most Championships, perhaps the proudest and most historic of all county clubs - are stuck at the bottom of Division Two, the result of a 48-point penalty imposed by the Cricket Discipline Commission (CDC), a weak satellite of the weak planet otherwise known as the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).

From the top of Division One to bottom of the pack in the space of a few years - it has been some fall from grace.

Amid the wreckage of damaged lives and a slight, but noticeable shift in the club’s tone – note how chairman-elect Harry Chathli wrote this week of “a culture that was regarded as not welcoming to all” (my italics), as opposed to simply stating that it was unwelcoming which the board had always claimed – Yorkshire have three games left to climb the table.

The first of those starts on Sunday against Glamorgan in Cardiff, where they have not won a Championship fixture since 1998, having played there only once subsequently (in 2021), with interim visits to Colwyn Bay (three times) and Swansea (once).

There follows a match against Leicestershire at Grace Road (September 19-22) and, to round off, a fixture against Worcestershire at Headingley (September 26-29).

For Ottis Gibson, the Yorkshire head coach, that celebratory circle at Scarborough was also about clarifying objectives for the rest of the campaign.

“The one thing we don’t want to do is end up on the bottom of the table,” said Gibson, whose side are 16 points behind second-bottom Gloucestershire with a game in hand.

“We sat in that circle and we’ve made that a goal; we don’t want to end up at the bottom even with a 48-point deduction.

“Consequently, all the teams above us know that we’re trying to win every game and that’s the goal we’ve set ourselves.”

Prior to the Derbyshire match, Gibson set another target - to see if Yorkshire could have won promotion without the points deduction. After Worcestershire’s victory against Glamorgan at New Road on Tuesday, however, that is now beyond them, with Yorkshire 86 points adrift of a Worcestershire team in the second and final promotion place. Even if Yorkshire win their last three games, they could only gain a maximum 72 points.

Realistically, their best hope is a sixth-placed (third-bottom) finish or, at a stretch, fifth or even fourth.

“Basically, we want to get as many points as we can,” said Gibson.