daryl mitchell scored his fourth specsavers county championship century of the season as worcestershire enjoyed a successful opening day of the final match of the season against yorkshire at New Road.
the opener followed up his 178 in the win over the tykes at scarborough with his 34th first class hundred for the county.
it was the first time a worcestershire player has scored hundreds in separate championship matches in the same season against yorkshire.
mitchell received excellent support from skipper moeen ali and ed barnard in stands of 102 and 88 for the second and sixth wickets respectively.
then ben twohig and josh tongue added an unbroken 49 and by the close worcestershire had moved onto 319-8 from 96 overs
worcestershire were playing for pride after defeat against essex at chelmsford had confirmed their relegation after one season in the top flight.
but their batsmen dug in and made yorkshire work for their wickets on a slowish pitch.
tim bresnan made the only breakthrough of the morning session when tom fell (19) was squared up by the former england seamer and provided jack leaning with a straightforward catch at third slip.
moeen ali was greeted with warm applause in his first appearance for worcestershire since leading them to their first vitality blast trophy success nine days ago.
he ensured left arm spinner and yorkshire debutant james logan’s introduction into the attack was a testing one with a six over long on and then a slog sweep brought the same result.
moeen, who had scored a double century at scarborough, again threatened a major contribution and completed a 69-ball half century.
mitchell had an escape on 43 when he was dropped by keeper jonathan tattersall off a brooks delivery.
but tom kohler-cadmore made no mistake when moeen (60) went for a pull in the first over back into the attack from yorkshire skipper steven patterson and only managed to top edge through to his former team-mate.
the moeen-mitchell stand was worth 102 in 27 overs.
joe clarke, in his final match for worcestershire before joining nottinghamshire on a four-year contract, was given a searching examination by an accurate and probing attack.
the england lions batsman made eight from 46 balls before he aimed a drive at brooks and was bowled.
alex milton (1) tentatively pushed forward to ben coad and fell to a sharp low catch by kohler-cadmore.
a fourth wicket of the afternoon session went to yorkshire when ben cox was (9) was leg before to brooks.
barnard (34) kept mitchell company in a stand of 88 in 24 overs before his dismissal – leg before to brooks
brooks made it two wickets in two balls as wayne parnell (0) was pouched at second slip.
mitchell’s resistance ended after making 127 when he holed out to deep mid wicket off the same bowler.
his 252 ball knock contained 17 fours but then came some fine stroke play from twohig (30 not out) and tongue (20 not out).
