UNTIL 6.42pm yesterday evening, Hampshire had not beaten Yorkshire for 14 years. But they beat the Tykes for the first time in 17 championship matches at Headingley to reinforce their position at the top of the table.

And all this without Shane Warne and John Crawley.

Yorkshire were set an improbable 320 to win after Nic Pothas followed up his first innings century with 77 in gutsy partnerships with Dimitri Mascarenhas and Shaun Udal.

Then Shane Warne-less Hampshire produced another outstanding performance in the field to finish off Yorkshire inside three days.

It looked like it would be Hampshire's match when Craig White was caught down the leg side, in the ninth over.

And the increasingly variable bounce of the Headingley track was highlighted when Anthony McGrath was beaten by a grubber from Chris Tremlett, whose height helped him maximise the unevenness in the wicket.

But Yorkshire looked set to at least take the match to a fourth day at that stage. It was only when Matthew Wood (45), Michael Lumb (0) and Ian Harvey (4) departed in the space of nine balls that Hampshire looked set for a well earned day off ahead of Sunday's big National League match at Old Trafford.

Wood's dismissal was the killer blow, he was out to the last ball before tea, caught at first slip for the first of Mascarenhas's five wickets, to leave Yorkshire 85-3.

Then, in his first over of the evening session, Mascarenhas took two more wickets in the space of four balls to inspire Hampshire to a third win in four championship matches.

Michael Lumb and Ian Harvey both played rash shots and were caught at second slip by Michael Clarke, and 41 runs later an excellent left-handed catch by a diving Lawrie Prittipual at third slip accounted for Simon Guy.

Yorkshire debutant Phil Jaques watched from the non-striker's end as Richard Dawson, Chris Silverwood and John Blain were all bowled in the space of seven overs.

And, after hitting Mascarenhas for a second six over long on, it was all over when Jaques mistimed another big shot - and was caught by Derek Kenway at cover.

Mascarenhas's third five-wicket haul of the season ensured that he remains the country's leading wicket taker - he has 25 for the season already.

But this was another outstanding team effort and Hampshire were soon singing their victory song in the dressing room to Shane Warne as the Hampshire skipper listened from his mobile phone in Zimbabwe!

The tempo had been set by Pothas and Mascarenhas in the morning session. After resuming on 114 for five, Hampshire scored a further 199 at FIVE runs an over before Billy Taylor was run out when Dawson palmed Alan Mullally's on drive on to the stumps at the non striker's end.

Once again it was around Pothas that Hampshire's innings was built. He and Mascarenhas had rescued Hampshire with 70 invaluable runs for the sixth wicket when the latter was caught after mistiming a pull to square leg.

Hampshire had been 73 for 5 when Mascarenhas arrived at the crease but it was the seventh wicket stand of 72 between Pothas and Shaun Udal that swung this undulating match back in Hampshire's favour.

Pothas carried on from where he left off in the first innings, striking ten fours and two sixes. His first maximum hit, a pull off Matthew Hoggard, was followed by a driven four off the England bowler's next ball to bring up his fifty.

But his next six was less auspicious. After top-edging a cut over Lumb at third man at the beginning of Craig White's first over, he edged the very next ball behind.

White had dropped Pothas at point off Harvey when the Hampshire man had made 70 but had the bit between his teeth after taking the Greek passport holder's wicket in the next over.

Udal had hit Harvey for one of his two pulled sixes shortly after Pothas was dropped but was floored in getting out of the way of a White bouncer on the way to his first half century of the season.

Between them, Udal and Tremlett put on 65 runs at more than five an over for the ninth wicket before they departed in successive overs.

Tremlett's 46-ball 35 ended with a straight six, a driven four and his dismissal from the first three deliveries after lunch from Dawson.

And after Udal departed Alan Mullally wielded the long handle, scoring 22 off 15 balls, including four fours, for his highest championship score in two years. It ensured that Yorkshire needed to surpass their first innings total to win on a wearing Headingley track. And that never looked likely to happen.