Gloucestershire under GrahamB (story)

[GrahamB]

We get a chance to redeem ourselves at home against the visiting Leicestershire side.

With unsettled/overcast weather expected throughout the match, it should be an interesting challenge.
James Bracey is injured and is out for three weeks, which is probably just as well, as he was going to be dropped anyway.
Benny Howell returns to the second team, and in come George Hankins and James Taylor to strengthen the batting.

Gloucestershire: C.Dent, M.Hammond, G.Roderick (captain and wk), G.Hankins, G.van Buuren, T.Hellawell, I.Cockbain, J.Taylor, R.Higgins, D.Payne, D.Worrall.


In other news, a couple of players have been promoted from the youth team. Sadly both look way out of their depth, so will likely be condemned to second team duties.

[GrahamB]

I guess that we were overdue to come a cropper, and we surely did against the powerful Middlesex side.

Batting first proved to be a poisoned chalice, as the home side's pace attack of Toby Roland-Jones, James Harris, Reece Topley and Tim Murtagh tore us to shreds. Out for our lowest total of the season to date.

In reply, we had Middlesex at 77/2, but then Sam Robson and Eoin Morgan came together to put on 250 for the third wicket.
After Robson fell for 139, Morgan carried on to complete an unbeaten 223, his highest ever FC score, before the declaration came.

With a deficit of 364 runs and the weather starting to turn, it was going to take a miracle for us to get out of jail.
Sadly, we were again dismantled by their deadly pace attack, and we fell to a huge defeat.


Gloucestershire - 140 (T.Roland-Jones-4/37, J.Harris-3/37)

Middlesex - 504/5 declared (E.Morgan-223no, S.Robson-139, D.Malan-58)

Gloucestershire - 149 (J.Harris-4/40, T.Roland-Jones-3/32)

Middlesex win by an innings and 215 runs.

[GrahamB]

Our next FC match could be important to our chances of promotion. We're off to play Middlesex, who currently top the points table.

With bad weather expected to interfere later in the match, winning the toss and batting first could be crucial.
Tom Smith makes way for Benny Howell, while young James Bracey takes over keeping duties from Gareth Roderick.
Bracey has had a horrid season with the bat, so taking the gloves might help his concentration levels and hopefully benefit his batting.

Gloucestershire: M.Hammond, C.Dent, B.Howell, G.Roderick (captain), G.van Buuren, J.Bracey (wk), T.Hellawell, I.Cockbain, R.Higgins, D.Payne, D.Worrall.

In beaking news, we've won the toss and will bat first.

[GrahamB]

Having chosen to bat first, Glamorgan made the most of the good batting conditions by going past 300. Three dropped catches (two in the slips, one in the outfield) didn't help our cause.

In reply, only Graeme van Buuren and Ian Cockbain made good contributions, as we were rolled for a disappointing total. Timm van der Gugten starred for the visitors with a bag of five wickets.

As in our previous FC match, our winning hopes lay on dismissing Glamorgan for a low score and having a realistic target to chase down.
And remarkably, our bowlers delivered yet again, with only a stubborn middle order partnership between Chris Cooke and David Lloyd threatening to thwart our hopes.

We were left with just over 300 to achieve victory, but with the pitch going downhill, this wasn't necessarily going to be easy.
However, a wonderful century from Miles Hammond set the stage for us to the others to get us home. Comeback kings once more.


Glamorgan - 343 (D.Lloyd-63, M.Labuschagne-54, C.Cooke-50)

Gloucestershire - 231 (G.van Buuren-83, T.van der Gugten-5/45, M.de Lange-3/61)

Glamorgan - 193 (D.Lloyd-87, D.Worrall-4/46, R.Higgins-4/57)

Gloucestershire - 308/6 (M.Hammond-114)

Win to Gloucestershire by 4 wickets.

[GrahamB]

Hey, when you take the weakest team the first season is not supposed to go this good!

Well I did finish bottom of the OD group stage.
But yeah, we're doing a lot better in the FC competition (which is my favourite).

[bryce87]

Hey, when you take the weakest team the first season is not supposed to go this good!

[GrahamB]

Our next FC match was back at home against visiting Glamorgan.

With fine weather expected throughout, and with the pitch expected to take sharp turn later in the match, we're going in with two spinners.
Graeme van Buuren and Tom Smith replace Benny Howell and George Hankins.

Gloucestershire: C.Dent, M.Hammond, G.Roderick (wk and captain), G.van Buuren, J.Bracey, T.Hellawell, I.Cockbain, R.Higgins, T.Smith, D.Payne, D.Worrall.

Glamorgan have won the toss and decided to bat first.

[GrahamB]

Leicestershire made a great start to their first innings, but Dan Worrall roared back with the ball to restrict them to under 300.
It might have been so much better had Dearden not been dropped before he'd reached double figures. He went on to be the top scorer with 80.
Worrall ended with a haul of six wickets.

In reply, Chris Dent carried his bat throughout our innings, while nobody else could reach 50.
We were probably fortunate to only concede a first innings deficit of 52.

If we could bowl well and dismiss the home side for a reasonably low total, we would still be in with a chance of winning.
Leicestershire's second innings followed a similar path to our first innings, as Colin Ackermann crafted a fine century with little support.
We were left with a victory target of 261, with just over a day to achieve it.

After Chris Dent fell early, our other top order batsmen all contributed to get us the required runs.
A nice come from behind win.


Leicestershire - 285 (H.Dearden-80, P.Horton-77, D.Worrall-6/74, D.Payne-3/68)

Gloucestershire - 233 (C.Dent-102no, D.Klein-4/73, G.Griffiths-3/67)

Leicestershire - 208 (C.Ackermann-100, D.Worrall-4/72)

Gloucestershire - 261/5 (G.Roderick-82, M.Hammond-73, M.Abbas-3/61)

[MarksNotts]

Going well Graham, Good story.

[GrahamB]

We're off to Leicestershire for our next FC match.

With conditions looking unsettled for most of the four days, and spin unlikely to play a useful part, our playing eleven changes again.
Benny Howell replaces Ben Charlesworth and will be the fourth pace bowler.
With Tom Smith dropping out of the side, James Bracey comes in as an extra batsman.

Gloucestershire: C.Dent, M.Hammond, B.Howell, G.Roderick (wk and captain), G.Hankins, J.Bracey, I.Cockbain, T.Hellawell, R.Higgins, D.Payne, D.Worrall.

Leicestershire have won the toss and will be batting first.

[GrahamB]

Things didn't exactly go according to plan against Sussex, but we managed a draw despite conceding a decent first innings lead.

The weather turned against as much sooner than anticipated after we chose to bat, and it became a real battle of attrition.
Five of our batsmen progressed past 30, but none were able to reach a half century.
Despite this, our final total was still a good one.

With three hours of play being lost to rain on Day 2, the home batsmen got through to Day 3, when the clouds had cleared away completely.
Taking an aggressive approach, Sussex accumulated a first innings lead of just over 100, to put real pressure on us going into our second innings.

Our top order laid a solid platform, and then Ian Cockbain and Tom Hellawell negotiated a long, difficult period on a sharply turning wicket.
A declaration was never really a feasible option until we were safe. Then we let our bowlers loose for an hour to throw everything at the Sussex batsmen and pick up some cheap wickets before the close of play.


Gloucestershire - 287 (M.Hamza-3/68, O.Robinson-3/76)

Sussex - 389 (B.Brown-110, M.Burgess-71, D.Payne-4/82)

Gloucestershire - 291/7 declared (I.Cockbain-88no, C.Dent-52, M.Hamza-3/60, D.Briggs-3/78)

Sussex - 27/3

[GrahamB]

We're off to Sussex for our fifth FC match in the competition.

Although the early part of the game is expected to suit the pace bowlers, the pitch is expected to turn later in the game, and so we've adjusted our playing eleven accordingly.
George Hankins and Ben Charlesworth replace James Bracey and Benny Howell. Hankins is returning from injury, whereas young Charlesworth provides part-time spin.
Rather than bringing back Graeme van Buuren as the key spinner, we've opted to give Tom Smith a trundle. Batsman James Taylor makes way for him.

Gloucestershire: C.Dent, M.Hammond, G.Roderick (wk and captain), I.Cockbain, T.Hellawell, R.Higgins, B.Charlesworth, T.Smith, D.Payne, D.Worrall.


We've won the toss and opted to bat first. Match report coming soon!

[GrahamB]

Another big win in our forth FC game, this time against visiting Lancashire.

A couple of changes to our side, with Graeme van Buuren and Harry Hankins making way for James Bracey and Benny Howell. Whereas van Buuren has been out of form, the two coming in have been rewarded for excellent second team performances. With the luxury of not requiring a spinner, Howell will be the fourth paceman.

Gloucestershire: M.Hammond, C.Dent, B.Howell, G.Roderick (wk and captain), J.Bracey, T.Hellawell, J.Taylor, I.Cockbain, R.Higgins, D.Payne, D.Worrall.


Lancashire decided to bowl first, with very cloudy conditions expected throughout most of the match.
Despite a fighting knock from Chris Dent, we eventually found ourselves at 198/7. Then Ryan Higgins again came to the rescue, as he combined with Tom Hellawell to bolster the team score.
We were extremely pleased to make 375 all out, and it was now time to let our bowlers loose!

In contrast to the Lancashire bowling attack (with the exception of Jimmy Anderson), Ryan Higgins, Dan Worrall and David Payne utilised the bowler friendly conditions superbly, rolling our shell-shocked visitors for 73 all out!

With the very cloudy overhead conditions continuing to prevail, and with such a big lead, we enforced the follow-on.
The Lancashire batsmen showed more determination this time round, but our bowlers were just too difficult to handle, and we wrapped up another innings win.


Gloucestershire - 375 (T.Hellawell-93, R.Higgins-90no, C.Dent-56, J.Anderson-5/74)

Lancashire - 73 (R.Higgins-4/14, D.Payne-3/9, D.Worrall-3/33)

Lancashire - 178 (D.Payne-4/31)

[GrahamB]

Our third FC match was on the road, away to Durham.

Gloucestershire playing eleven: C.Dent, M.Hammond, G.Roderick (wk and captain), T.Hellawell, G.van Buuren, J.Taylor, I.Cockbain, H.Hankins, R.Higgins, D.Payne, D.Worrall.

Durham won the toss and chose to bat (we'd have done the same).
However, the pitch had early demons and our bowlers took full advantage, Higgins leading the way with 5/7, as we scuttled our hosts for 60 all out!

In reply, we started off better, mainly due to a polished half century from Hammond. Life was still difficult for the batsmen though, and it wasn't long before we were struggling at 164/7.
Then a record eighth wicket stand between Cockbain and Higgins took the game completely away from our opponents.
We racked up a huge first innings lead to completely demoralise the Durham lads.

Any hopes of a Durham rearguard action were soon put to rest, as our bowlers again dominated to wrap up an innings victory.


Durham - 60 (R.Higgins-5/7, D.Worrall-3/23)

Gloucestershire - 424 (I.Cockbain-130no, R.Higgins-98, M.Hammond-55, M.Salisbury-3/88, J.Weighell-3/92)

Durham - 220 (R.Higgins-4/55)

[GrahamB]

Great story Graham.

Thanks Chris.