Westley While You Work

The final day of Essex vs Gloucestershire at Chelmsford came after the previous two days had been heavily rain affected, and with more forecast in the afternoon, it was really a bonus points grab for both sides from whatever play happened.
Essex resumed on 177-3 with Tom Westley (82) and Mark Pettini (18) batting and Westley was promptly dropped in the 2nd over, the edge flying to Alex Gidman at first slip when keeper Cameron Herring dived across and grassed the chance off Will Gidman. Runs came slowly with the 200 coming up in the 13th over with consecutive fours by Westley off David Payne through midwicket. Westley then reached his hundred with his 15th four in the next over as runs began to come more easily before Liam Norwell found some late inswing with the old ball to trap Pettini LBW for 35 at 234-4. Captain James Foster then came in and Norwell and Benny Howell kept the pressure on with four maidens before Westley thumped another four down the ground.
The new ball came and Essex saw out the three overs until lunch from James Fuller and Will Gidman at 267-4. The predicted rain hadn't come, so it remained if Essex could get to somewhere near 350 and if Gloucestershire could take two more wickets for another point. Soon after lunch, another three to the deep boundary off Fuller took Westley past 150, his 2nd big score of the week, following his 130 against the students and Fenners. The 300 and third batting point soon followed as the pitch looked flat and lifeless and unlikely to produce a result even without the rain, and Gloucestershire then dropped another easy catch, Howell giving Foster a life at short mid-wicket, but Westley fell at the end of the same over, edging Will Gidman to Herring for an excellent 163.
Not that it put Foster off, he carted David Payne's first three balls of the next over for four through the point/third man region and got another four off Gidman to third man as the 350 began to look on, even though the floodlights were on and the gloom closing in. Foster kept getting of strike and Greg Smith kept blocking, making the task harder. The umpires obviously were waiting for the 350, since it had started raining  round about the 99th over, but we played on.
Essex needed 5, Howell bowled a full ball which Foster swept high down to fine leg for a one bounce four (bringing up his third 50 of the year), forcing captain Michael Klinger to bring in all the fielders to stop the single, and Foster went for the same shot, this time finding the top edge where Fuller at fine leg jumped high, caught the ball, dived backwards and clung on to take the catch to give Gloucesershire their 2nd bowling point, with Graham Napier running out to make sure one more ball was bowled before they went off, and Smith slapped that ball through point for four to bring up the 350. The rain closed in at the end of the over and the game was called off an hour later with Essex 353-6.
They take 8 points from the draw, and Gloucestershire 9.

A Howelling Defeat

The opening game of the CB40 for Middlesex was against Gloucestershire at Lord's. The afternoon started damp and wet and when it finally stopped, we had a 26 over game in front of the Sky cameras. Gloucestershire won the toss and fielded, which looked like a good decision as Middlesex scored only a single off 3 of the first 4 overs. Dawid Malan and Joe Denly then began to pick up the pace and had put on 45 in 7 overs when Denly missed a drive to Graham McCarter and was bowled for 25.
A slow outfield was making runs harder to come by and Malan finally snapped, heaving the spin of Ed Young to Benny Howell at deep mid-wicket for 22, Chris Rogers then edged Howell to Jon Batty and Middlesex were 58-3. Paul Stirling was one of the few who mastered the conditions and cracked three fours as Middlesex began to recover, but Neil Dexter aimed a huge swipe off Young, and was caught at long-on for 9. Then the key blow as Young spun one past Stirling through to Batty, Young was the only one to appeal and it was given out, much to Stirling's surprise (25 off 21).
Gareth Berg and John Simpson rebuilt the innings from 90-5, gradually increasing the scoring rate as they added 47 for the sixth wicket before McCarter grabbed his 2nd wicket on debut, Hamish Marshall holding the catch at long-off to dismiss Simpson for the top score 29. Berg edged Ian Saxelby behind next over, and Steven Crook was caught at cover in the final over as McCarter finished with 3-41. Young finished with 3-26 off 6 overs. Ollie Rayner's 13 off 6 provided a useful flourish as Middlesex 157-8, a good total but it seemed 10-15 runs too few.
Chris Dent smashed two fours off Tim Murtagh's first over, but fell LBW to the final ball for 8. Marshall then laid into Collymore, hitting 22 off his two overs as Gloucestershire raced to 54-1 after 5 overs. Howell provided good support, and Middlesex needed a quick wicket, and they got one as Rayner struck in his first over having Marshall LBW for 33 off 22, 61-2. Howell and Kane Williamson carried on accumulating as Gloucestershire reached 89 after 10 overs. Steven Crook then struck having Williamson LBW first ball for 9.
Alex Gidman carried on the quick hitting, blasting 26 off 21 before Rayner bowled him on his way to 2-29 off 6 overs. Ian Cockbain was the last wicket to fall for 19 LBW to Dexter, 149-5 but only nine needed off 7 overs. Howell soon ended proceedings, smashing Denly through midwicket or four to win by five wickets with 22 balls left, Howell 45 off 48 (3 fours, 1 six). Young was awarded man of the match.

Napier, Masters, Wind, Mills

For a cold, windy Good Friday, why not go to Chelmsford to see the 2nd day of Essex vs Gloucestershire? Essex had been all out for 364 the evening before so Gloucestershire strated the day batting and, in tough conditions, they struggled. David Masters and Maurice Chambers found early swing and the first runs of the day were from Chris Dent's edge over the slips for four. His opening partner Richard Coughtrie fell in the next over for a duck, caught at slip by Alviro Petersen.
Dan Housego and Dent then somehow managed to add 62 for the 2nd wicket as edges fell short of the slips and chances were missed by both James Foster and Greg Smith. Finally, Tymal Mills splattered Dent's off stump for 38 before Housego and Alex Gidman saw them to 86-2 at lunch. After lunch was a different story as Gloucestershire's luck ran out and after a couple of good strokes Alex Gidman edged Masters to Foster to go for 15, 91-3. Hamish Marshall then looked all at sea against the swing and could only skew one from Chambers to cover where Masters took an excellent diving catch.
Housego brought up the 100 only to see Iain Cockbain play around a full ball from Chambers (0) and when Housego himself was bowled by Masters for 39, Gloucester were 108-6 having lost 4-22 since lunch. It was now bitterly cold, windy and dark with the ball swinging round corners as Ed Young was caught behind after blasting three 4s, off Masters on 13. Will Gidman, Ian Saxelby, James Fuller and Paul Muchall (on debut) then managed to cobble together a reasonable resistance as they got Gloucestershire to 180, Mills (3-35) and Graham Napier finished off tail still 35 short of avoiding the follow-on at the stroke of tea. Chambers took 3-49 and Masters 3-49 (off 20 overs) as Essex decided to enforce the follow-on against their hapless foes.
Given how badly the previous session had gone, their was only one way the match was heading and Napier and Masters ripped through the top order in a further (floodlight assisted) session of mayhem. First Dent was caught by Foster off Napier for 5. Then, after 45 minutes, Coughtrie was stuck on the pad, loud appeal, given out for a 33-ball duck to bag a pair in a day, leaving him scratching his head as to how Essex had scored runs yesterday. This spurred Napier on and Alex Gidman fell two balls later prodding to Tom Westley at slip for nought. 19-3 became 29-4 as Housego wafted Masters to Peterson at slip before Marshall fell LBW for eight leaving them 42-5 and meaning they had lost their last 13 wickets for 131.
Will Gidman and Cockbain then saw off 3 more overs when the umpires called them off for bad light, which when you've got floodlights on is a bit ridiculous, not that the batsmen complained, they were in the pavilion before Foster had realised what had happened. After all that Gloucestershire are left 55-5 still 129 away from making Essex bat again and making a 3 day finish almost certain.

A Giddy Day in Leicester

A different day, a different ground. Leicester, for the 2nd day of Leicestershire's Championship game against Gloucestershire, why can't they make it easy to get to from Northampton?
Arrived at the ground just before the start where Gloucester started the 2nd day 177-3. Kane Williamson moved on from his overnight 102 to 149 before he was brilliantly caught low down by the giant Will Jefferson off Hoggard. At the other end Alex Gidman, the captain anchored the innings and was unbeaten at lunch after bringing up his fifty with a six off Henderson as the Leicester bowlers were looking pretty weak, even Kadeer Ali bowled an over, on a flat pitch with Gloucester 286-4.
After lunch, Gidman moved on past his hundred for the first time since 2009. His brother Will was the only wicket to fall lbw to Jigar Naik as Gloucester carried on to 419-5 at tea with Alex cracking his 150 and Gloucester scrambled their final batting point off the penultimate ball of the 110th over. Throughout the session, Hoggard kept the fielders awake with his witty banter.
Tea seemed to bring with it an improvement in the bowlers as the Gloucester quick run search turned into wickets with Gidman finally falling to Henderson for an excellent 168. Ed Young and Jon Batty then fell to Naik as Leicester fought their way back, Ian Saxelby hit Henderson for a massive six into the pavilion before Naik had him lbw as well. Jon Lewis hit Henderson for another six, then with a missed stumping bringing two byes, the declaration came with Gloucester 504-9.
This left Leicester 8 overs to bat and they did this to finish 15-0, Boyce (14*) taking 12 off one over from Saxelby.
Overall the day wasn't that great for Leicester although their good over rate (+8 at one point) meant play finished at exactly 6pm. Naik was the pick of the bowlers with 4-91 although Hoggard(3-80) looked menacing when the new ball had been taken.