Yorkshire begin their bid for back-to-back LV= County Championship titles against newly promoted Worcestershire at New Road on Sunday, April 12 after next season’s fixtures were announced today.

After friendlies against the MCC in Abu Dhabi and Leeds/Bradford MCCU at Headingley in late March and early April, Andrew Gale’s side start with successive away Championship matches against Worcester and their closest challengers in 2014, Nottinghamshire.

Their first home match comes against Warwickshire at Headingley, starting on April 26.

Yorkshire have particularly busy months in June and July and end the campaign with four Championship matches in September, the last of those against Sussex at Headingley on Tuesday, September 22.

The champions returned to pre-season training at the start of the month, although they are now eight men short due to commitments abroad.

Yorkshire’s director of professional cricket Martyn Moxon said: “The celebrations have ended and the hard work has started again. Last year was nice, but it’s history now.

“We’ve said that we want to repeat the success, so to do that you need to be better.

“To get continued success, you need to keep improving. We can’t be complacent and mustn’t rest on our laurels.”

Yorkshire play Championship matches at Scarborough against Worcestershire, starting July 19, and Durham on August 7 for Festival week.

They also have Royal London one-day Cup matches there against Gloucestershire on July 26 and Somerset on August 5.

The two Roses NatWest T20 Blast matches against Lancashire will both take place under lights on Friday, June 5 at Headingley and on Friday, July 3 at Emirates Old Trafford.

Six of the Vikings’ seven T20 Blast home matches will be played under new floodlights at Headingley.

“From the end of the May through June is really busy, but that’s just the way it is. I don’t think it’s any worse or better than last year’s fixtures,” said Moxon, who reiterated just how hard the ECB’s job of compiling a domestic calendar is.

“There are busy periods, but every team is going to be in the same boat. We’ve just got to deal with it, which is why you’ve got to have such a strong squad.

“To be fair to the ECB, they do try to accommodate counties and are sympathetic towards the workloads. But up until we have a different structure, we are going to be faced with busy periods of play.

“It’s difficult. If there was an easy way of solving issues, they’d have been done years ago.

“The bottom line is that if you want to play Friday night T20s, which seems to be best for the crowds, then you can’t have everything.

“A big difficulty is playing a Friday T20, a Championship match Sunday to Wednesday and another T20 on the Friday. That is physically and mentally tiring. But how can you avoid that?”

With captain Gale banned for the MCC match and the Championship opener, he will return to action against Notts at Trent Bridge on April 19.

Yorkshire's 2015 fixtures

MARCH

Sun 22 - Wed 25 - 4 days, MCC v Yorkshire, Abu Dhabi

APRIL Tues 7 - Thurs 9 - 3 days, Yorkshire v Leeds/Bradford MCCU, Headingley, UNI

Sun 12 - Wed 15 - 4 days, Worcestershire v Yorkshire, New Road, LVCC1

Sun 19 - Wed 22 - 4 days, Nottinghamshire v Yorkshire, Trent Bridge, LVCC1

Sun 26 - Wed 29 - 4 days, Yorkshire v Warwickshire, Headingley, LVCC1

MAY

Sun 10 - Wed 13 - 4 days, Yorkshire v Hampshire, Headingley, LVCC1

Fri 15 - 1 day, Yorkshire v Derbyshire, Headingley, T20, F

Fri 22 - 1 day, Nottinghamshire v Yorkshire, Trent Bridge, T20, F

Sun 24 - Wed 27 - 4 days, Somerset v Yorkshire, Taunton, LVCC1

Fri 29 - 1 day, Durham v Yorkshire, Emirates Durham ICG, T20

JUNE

Fri 5 - 1 day, Yorkshire v Lancashire, Headingley, T20, F

Sun 7 - Wed 10 - 4 days, Yorkshire v Middlesex, Headingley, LVCC1

Sun 14 - 1 day, Yorkshire v Northamptonshire, Headingley, T20

Fri 19 - 1 day, Yorkshire v Nottinghamshire, Headingley, T20, F

Sun 21 - 1 day, Birmingham Bears v Yorkshire, Edgbaston, T20

Mon 22 - Thurs 25 - 4 days, Yorkshire v Nottinghamshire, Headingley, LVCC1

Fri 26 - 1 day, Leicestershire v Yorkshire, Grace Road, T20

Sun 28 - Wed 1 July - 4 days, Durham v Yorkshire, Emirates Durham ICG, LVCC1

JULY

Fri 3 - 1 day, Lancashire v Yorkshire, Emirates Old Trafford, T20, F

Sun 5 - Wed 8 - 4 days, Warwickshire v Yorkshire, Edgbaston, LVCC1

Fri 10 - 1 day, Yorkshire v Durham, Headingley, T20, F

Sun 12 - 1 day, Derbyshire v Yorkshire, Chesterfield, T20

Tues 14 - 1 day, Yorkshire v Worcestershire, Headingley, T20, F

Fri 17 - 1 day, Northamptonshire v Yorkshire, Northampton, T20, F

Sun 19 - Wed 22 - 4 days, Yorkshire v Worcestershire, Scarborough, LVCC1

Fri 24 - 1 day, Yorkshire v Birmingham Bears, Headingley, T20, F

Sun 26 - 1 day, Yorkshire v Gloucestershire, Scarborough, 50L

Mon 27 - 1 day, Derbyshire v Yorkshire, The 3aaa County Ground, 50L, F

Wed 29 - 1 day, Surrey v Yorkshire, Kia Oval, 50L

Thurs 30 - 1 day, Worcestershire v Yorkshire, New Road, 50L

AUG

Sun 2 - 1 day, Durham v Yorkshire, Emirates Durham ICG, 50L

Mon 3 - 1 day, Yorkshire v Leicestershire, Headingley, 50L

Wed 5 - 1 day, Yorkshire v Somerset, Scarborough, 50L

Fri 7 - Mon 10 - 4 days, Yorkshire v Durham, Scarborough, LVCC1

Wed 12 - Fri 14 - T20 Quarter-Finals

Tues 18 - 1 day, Yorkshire v Northamptonshire, Headingley, 50L

Fri 21 - Mon 24 - 4 days, Sussex v Yorkshire, Hove, LVCC1

Tues 25 - Thurs 27 - RL50 Quarter-Finals

Sat 29 - T20 Finals Day, Edgbaston

SEP

Tues 1 - Fri 4 - 4 days, Yorkshire v Somerset, Headingley, LVCC1

Sun 6 - Mon 7 - RL50, Semi-Finals

Wed 9 - Sat 12 - 4 days, Middlesex v Yorkshire, Lord’s, LVCC1

Mon 14 - Thurs 17 - 4 days, Hampshire v Yorkshire, Ageas Bowl, LVCC1

Sat 19 - RL50, Final, Lord’s

Tues 22 - Fri 25 - 4 days, Yorkshire v Sussex, Headingley, LVCC1