Cider final revisited

YB40: Gloucestershire 251 for 8 (Klinger 87, Marshall 55) beat Glamorgan 247 for 7 (Rees 83, Goodwin 49) by two wickets

The bandwagon is still rolling on its merry way to a Lords final. Admittedly it's a very Gloucestershire bandwagon, and with our present financial constraints the wheels are wobbling and it could do with a lick of paint. But rolling it still is.

Despite Gloucestershire's young bowlers continuing to go to all parts of every one day ground they play at, Captain Klinger remains unruffled as he helped himself to a further 87 runs. This takes Klinger's YB40 tally to 662 runs at a barely credible average of 94.

Gloucestershire tried their best to throw it away after openers Klinger and Marshall cantered to a century opening stand. It took some late biffing from Benny and James Fuller to see Glos across the line with a ball to spare.

All this means that, despite a fluctuating couple of weeks of YB40 results, Glos are still very much in the hunt. With one match remaining we sit level on points with Somerset at the top of the group meaning that bank holiday Monday will see a shoot-out for a semi-final spot between Glos and the cider boys from down the road. Admittedly, Glamorgan can still throw a spanner in the works. The Welshmen are two points behind, but face Leicestershire on Wednesday night. A win for the Dragons will mean that 3 teams will share the top of Group C.

God alone knows what the permutations are from there. Northants are another team with the same number of points (all be it in Group A) and so they can still play a part in gaining the one 'runners-up' spot. Essentially though, should Glos beat Somerset then we should be in the semi finals regardless of other results.

Exciting times. Let's hope that the opening of the new pavilion on Monday week inspires the boys to greater heights than they managed in last week's mauling down at Taunton.