Fuller joins the party

Day 1: Worcs 182 v Glos 83 - 0.

The Cheltenham groundsmen continue to sit in their little tent chuckling to themselves. So far this festival has produced an absolute road against Kent in the championship followed by a sticky bunsen in the first t20 match which moved Kaiser Tom to apologise for the state of the pitch. We then had an almost 400 run pitch for the second t20. Thus it was anyone's guess as to what we were going to get for this crucial championship match against third placed Worcestershire.

Gloucestershire's selection suggested they fancied another run friendly match, dropping Dan Housego and bringing in young Miles Hammond to bolster the spin bowling department.

Apparently there was a 'nice green tinge' to the pitch at the toss but this wasn't enough to persuade Worcestershire to contemplate anything other than to bat first. Few would then have expected that by lunch they would be trying to claw there way back from being reduced to 22 for 6.

James Fuller took his first ever hat trick, removing Pardoe, division 2's leading run scorer Moeen Ali, and Alex Kervezee and then Craig Miles took two in two balls to take perfect advantage of the early seam friendly conditions.

You might think that the Jessop Tavern View would be full of praise for such a wonderful start to a vital match. You'd be wrong. With plans in place and flights booked the Jessop Tavern View has plans for catching a bit of days 3 and 4. Thus we cheered every run that Joe Leach and Gareth Andrew scored as they put on 120 for the seventh wicket. From 22 for 6 Glos will probably be a little bit disappointed to let Worcestershire to vaguely recover to 182 all out. Any disappointment was quickly put to bed as Captain Klinger and Chris Dent put on 83 untroubled runs before the close.

James Fuller took a seasons best 5 for 43. Fuller now has 13 wickets at an average of 40 over 6 matches this season. Whilst niggling injuries haven't helped but we really hope that '38' can use this to kick on for the rest of the season. Fuller finished last seasons championship with 24 wickets at 27 and made several 'headline' generating performances in limited overs games. This seemed to mark a watershed for Fuller and the Jessop Tavern View had high hopes that this would be the season that he emerged as a real strike bowler for Gloucestershire. King John has shown good faith with Fuller during his slightly tumultuous time at Nevil road. Injuries haven't helped; we'll cede this point. But now is the time for Fuller to reward this faith.

We're now hoping that Glos can bat through tomorrow leaving the Jessop Tavern View to rock up at Cheltenham on Friday morning, buying themselves an ice cream and then sit back and watch the boys have a slog for the first hour before rolling over Worcestershire in the afternoon.

Enjoy Fuller's hat-trick below: