A bit of fight....and a bit of rain. A blueprint for our season

Day 1; Glos 195 for 4 v Hampshire

Having been skittled twice last week the last thing that Gloucestershire wanted was to lose the toss on a cold, damp south coast morning, and walk out to bat on a green top. But that is exactly what happened to Chris Dent and Richard Coughtrie who faced the unenviable task of trying to kick start Gloucestershires season.


Coughtrie at least got off the mark for the season, following his pair against Essex, but the 'House' managed to be out twice in his short innings to leave Gloucestershire reeling at 22 for 2. Experienced pros Gidders and O'Mish seemed to have summed up the situation and decided that their feeble technique against the moving ball meant there was no point in trying to hang around and so they might as well as have a dash. In fairness this now appears to be both of their default settings and a perfect example of players deciding that they will do their run scoring when the sun comes out, thank you very much. Both got in. Both had a dash. Both perished LBW playing across the line. The Jessop Tavern is going to copy and paste these last few sentences somewhere as we can't be arsed to have to type it out for every game.

Thankfully the Gloucestershire youngsters have completely disregarded the example set by their senior pros, as both Chris Dent and Ian Cockbain got their heads down and saved Gloucstershire with gritty run-an-over half centuries. In our preview for this match yesterday, we asked that the boys at least show a bit of fight, and we couldn't have asked for any more than the unbeaten hundred partnership these two produced before the rain came. Long may it continue. The rain that is. Despite a commendable level of application shown today, the Jessop Tavern View still reckons that a wet and miserable summer is Glos' best bet this season.

In an amusing aside, we were glad to see that we aren't the only ones who struggle to think of things to write about when covering division 2 county cricket. Cricinfo reported that Hampshire's new sponsors have done away with the Shane Warne suite, whilst the Shaun Udal suite survives. Interesting stuff.