Weather winning as county face nervous end to campaign
GLOUCESTERSHIRE’S prospects of playing in Division One of the Specsavers County Championship next season were greatly enhanced by the September weather.
They slumped to 80-6 on the opening day against promotion rivals Northamptonshire but rain prevented any play on day two and until 3pm on daythree.
The story was the same at Chester-lestreet, where Glamorgan have to beat Durham to deny Gloucestershire but after reducing their hosts to 262-8 after two rain-hit days, there was no play possible on day three.
A draw should be enough to seegloucestershire promoted ahead of Glamorgan, who must achieve a convincing win at Durham to make the top three.
So Gloucestershire were breathing a sigh of relief when umpires Mike Burns and David Millns called a halt to proceedings after lunch on day one.
On day one, second-placed Northants reduced their hosts to 80-6, Ben Sanderson taking 2-19 to advance his personal tally for the season to 60 wickets.
When play got under way at 3pm on Wednesday, the third day of the match, Gloucestershire went from 80-6 to 134-6 in an hour’s play before rain returned.
Ben Charlesworth, who did his best to keep Gloucestershire’s first innings afloat on day one by contributing a defiant 35 not out, moved on to 49 and Graeme van Buuren, who was on five not out when play resumed, took his score to 41 not out.
Victorious in just four of their last 30 matches at Bristol, Gloucestershire have struggled to post meaningful firstinnings totals at the County Ground.
Not surprisingly, Northants opted to take advantage of seam-friendly conditions, their bowlers exploiting movement off the pitch to bank two of the four points they require to guarantee promotion.
Intent upon seeing off strike bowlers Sanderson and Brett Hutton, openers James Bracey and Chris Dent fulfilled their obligations during the first 10 overs, waiting patiently for the bad ball and advancing the score to 27 without loss.
Bracey departed from the script on eight, driving at a Sanderson delivery that pitched outside off stump and offering a catch behind to Adam Rossington via a thin edge.
Northants struck again in the next over, Gareth Berg locating Miles Hammond’s outside edge and Hutton taking a smart catch low to his left.
Then, taken by surprise when called for a quick single by new batsman Gareth Roderick, Dent was slow to set off and run out for 15 by Luke Procter’s direct hit from cover point.
Roderick compounded his error, pushing tentatively forward to a length ball from Sanderson and departing lbw for two later in the same over, at which point the home side had lost four wickets for five runs in the space of 23 balls.
George Hankins helped advance the score to 54 before suffering outrageous misfortune, run out backing up when Doug Bracewell deflected a straight drive from Charlesworth onto the stumps.
Ryan Higgins followed him to the pavilion soon afterwards, attempting to pull Bracewell and chipping to short square leg for one with the score on 67.
Charlesworth did his utmost to retrieve a parlous situation, posting an unbeaten 35 in alliance with Graeme van Buuren, who is five not out.
Only two balls were bowled after lunch before the anticipated rain arrived.
Charlesworth’s defiance had spanned 58 balls and an hour and 10 minutes.
No play was possible on day two on Tuesday as Burns and Millns staged three inspections before deciding the outfield was unfit, finally abandoning play for the day at 3.35pm.