C'est la vie

Day 4: Kent  beat Glos by 2 wickets.

We guess that some you win, and some you lose. Having benefit from a contrived declaration in the recent game against Hampshire Gloucestershire fell foul of trying to manufacturing a result on a ground that is almost impossible to stifle runs on.

At least captain Klingers declaration was eminently sensible and few Gloucester fans can really grumble about setting a side 411 to win on the final day. Sadly for Gloucestershire they came up against a former test player in fine touch as "West Indian" Brendan Nash made a match winning 199 before dramatically retiring ill from heat exhaustion with the winning line in sight. The irony of a "West Indian" not being able to take the heat wasn't lost on us. Some how you couldn't have imagined Clive Lloyd or Viv retiring on 199 from a bit of sun.

The end result is that Gloucestershire walk away with 6 points from the match. Had we settled for a draw we would have taken home a maximum of 11. Sacrificing 5 points in pursuit of a victory that would have kept us in the promotion chase seems a fair enough gamble to us. Glos are now 6th in division 2, 8 points adrift of 3rd placed Worcestershire who are next up at Cheltenham. The gap between 3rd place and the promotion places is now 38 points, although 2nd placed Northants have played a game more. A win next week and Glos are still right in this, as improbably as that seems.

King John is right to take positives from this performance. All of the top order appear bang in form, even Dan Housego was spoon-fed a second innings fifty. The bowlers toiled away and almost forced the victory had it not been for Nash.

Now it's twenty-twenty time at Cheltenham.....

Day 4 Highlights below: