YORKSHIRE captain Andrew Gale has reflected with great pride on a record-breaking year for the county, but admits it will be much tougher to repeat the dose in 2016.

Gale led the White Rose county to their second successive County Championship title success this year, blowing the rest of the competition away.

Yorkshire retained their Division One crown by a massive 68 points from second-placed Middlesex, the only team to beat them.

Amazingly, the gap between Middlesex and bottom side Worcestershire was 67 points.

Yorkshire’s total of 268 was the record for points in a season in the two-division era (since 2000), while their haul of eleven wins was also a record in that period.

Next year, however, eight of the nine counties in Division One are based at Test grounds, leading many to suggest that it will be the strongest English four-day competition in recent memory.

Personally, Gale enjoyed a memorable summer of red ball cricket by topping 1,000 Championship runs and lifting the trophy at Lord’s in September.

And off the field, Gale’s year was topped off in style with the arrival of a baby son on Christmas Day.

“It’s been fantastic,” said the 32-year-old when asked to reflect on 2015. “I look back at it, and seems unbelievable at times how well we did.

“It didn’t feel whilst we were in the midst of it that we were going to break all those records. Now it’s sunk in, you think ‘we really did do well this year’. But I’ve already turned my attention to next year now.

“To win a hat-trick, that would be the icing on the cake. To win it three times in a row, that’s the one I want. If we do win it, we’ll be remembered forever.

“It will be tough to break records again, but it’s a big enough challenge just to win it. I don’t care if we win it by half a point.

“The way the lads have trained since November, you can tell they’re not just happy winning two.”