Dent century and Gidman 5-for put Glos well on top

Day 2 and 3: Glos 314 and 129-5 v Hampshire 199

After Day 1 the Jessop Tavern View called for fight, particularly in light of the opening week's debacle, and we'll be damned if we haven't got exactly what we asked for! We are seriously considering offering forward our services as motivational online speakers for the boys....somehow we don't see the combination of King John, Captain Gidders and vice-skipper O'Mish being "we will fight them on the beaches sort of guys". Maybe we are wrong. Maybe O'Mish puts so much energy into encouraging the boys to fight that he has nothing left when he gets to the middle. Actually, maybe not.

So what has happened so far? Well, Chris Dent went on to complete his first proper first class hundred. Over the years we have learnt never to get over-excited about any promising Gloucestershire players (rumour has it that the Jessop Tavern View thought Carl 'Son of Gordon' Greenidge looked handy when first spotted.....we also thought Mark Hardinges looked fat and useless to counteract this) but Chris Dent's innings showed all the signs of a real maturing of his talents. He clearly has all the shots, but for the first time we saw him really apply himself, and actually convert a start into a potentially match winning hundred.

Will Gidman continues to be given the new ball, which we are yet to be entirely convinced about, but 5 for 48 is a good argument against us. David Payne took his first wicket of the match and Ian Saxelby took a handy 3-46 to leave Hampshire trailing by 115 on first innings. An early collapse left the boys in trouble at 71-5, before the great man contributed a valuable 25 not out to an unbroken sixth-wicket stand of 58 with Ian Cockbain, who ended the day unbeaten on 27.

Video highlights of the match from the Hampshire site below:

http://www.ageasbowl.com/royalstv/highlights/