Exactly 12 months on from the Trent Bridge fiasco when Andrew Gale was prevented from lifting the County Championship trophy by the ECB, the Yorkshire captain finally got his hands on the prize at Lord’s on Saturday.

The popular White Rose skipper was presented with Yorkshire’s second Championship trophy to huge cheers from the MCC members in front of the famous Lord’s pavilion and also from the county’s supporters in the Grand Stand.

Jason Gillespie admitted the ECB’s treatment of Gale following his Improper Conduct charge surrounding the Ashwell Prince saga left him seething.

“At that moment, my blood was boiling and it has been a driving force,” he said. “It was probably lucky I had a pair of sunglasses on because I was pretty emotional after the debacle of last year.

“Reasons only known to the people in charge to not only suspend him but deny him the trophy. To do it now, at Lord’s in front of the Pavilion, is a very, very special moment.”

Not even a first defeat of the season against an impressive Middlesex could stop Gale from describing “the best moment of my career, definitely”.

“It was a year to the day that I was crying at the end of the game, not being able to lift the trophy,” he said, having celebrated with his wife Kate, his children and parents. “It was a bitter pill to swallow.

“So it was a pretty emotional time stood there with the lads and being called forward. It was an unbelievable feeling, and one that I’ll never forget.

“I wondered whether I would get the opportunity again, but I’m very fortunate that I’m surrounded by a great bunch of players and coaches that we’ve been able to win the trophy.

To be given that opportunity to step up, it’s a fantastic feeling - at the Home of Cricket as well. We’ve been well supported, and all the family are down.

“They weren’t meant to come until the third day, and I rang them and said ‘it might be done in two days, you better get yourself down’.

“I’ve forked out a load of money to bring them down, but it didn’t quite happen like that. We’ve been outplayed.”

Yorkshire were set a target of 381 to win at the start of Saturday’s fourth day following Middlesex’s overnight declaration on 573-8 in their second innings.

Toby Roland-Jones was their star with a season’s best 5-27 as Yorkshire, who face Hampshire at the Ageas Bowl today, were bowled out for 134 midway through the afternoon.

Alex Lees top-scored with 62, but no other batsman made it to 20 as the champions slipped from 92-2 shortly after lunch, losing eight wickets for 42 inside 22 overs.

“I’m pretty disappointed with the way things have gone,” added Gale. “I said to the lads afterwards ‘make sure you haven’t quite got your flip-flops on for the end of the season’.

“We spoke about it. We said ‘we don’t want to be sat there with a beer and the trophy having lost because our unbeaten record is important to us’.

“But I guess all the emotion that went with the first day…when I brought Ryan Sidebottom off after three or four overs when he was bowling on day two, he said ‘look I’m really tired here because of the emotion of yesterday, a few beers, not much sleep’.

“Usually everyone’s focused on the game, but we were slightly off it.”

Matt Fisher is expected to come in for the rested Sidebottom.