Weather saves Glos from second Surrey slaughter

Gloucestershire 233 (8 points) drew with Surrey 349 - 6 (11 points)

Gloucestershire remained unbeaten in the Championship since the two wins during the Cheltenham Festival, after a game ruined by the rain. The scorecard doesn't tell the true story though, as the match one in which Surrey would likely have pressed for a victory (and promotion) after dominating proceedings on Day 2 of the match before the weather intervened.

Gloucestershire batted first after being put in by Gareth Batty and it didn't go well as the talented Curran brothers reduced us to 63-4 inside the first hour, with Tavare, Dent, O'Mish and Howell all departing cheaply. The 'shire were indebted to Gareth Roderick's 71 for getting us on the way to an even passable first innings total, as he punished some wayward bowling, striking 12 fours on his way to a 100 ball 71. However, having seen a patient Roderick and Gourmet-Burger partnership take us 103-4 at the interval, wickets continued to fall after lunch.

First to go was the Kiwi, for yet another low score (his highest championship knock of the season is just 61) and Jack Taylor and Roderick soon followed. This brought together James Fuller and Tom Smith and the Kiwi decided he wasn't going to die wondering- he struck several crisp boundaries in a 40 ball 48, before he was bowled by Tom Curran who completed a 5-fer. Smith then put on a second fifty partnership with David Payne, taking us to 203-8 at tea and beyond, before Payne was caught off Curran on his way to 6-61. Norwell was soon bowled by Batty and we were all out for a below-par 233. Surrey reached 74-2 at the close, with Norwell strangling Arun Harinath down the leg side and Rory Burns caught by Fuller off Benny the Frenchman.

Day 2 was very much a batting day, with one of Surrey's many wicket keepers, Ben Foakes to the fore. The wasn't an awful lot to write home about from a 'shire perspective, as good batting conditions saw Foakes reach a career-best 140*, ably supported by 17 year old Sam Curran who hit 49 and Jason Roy who chipped in with 39. Glos used seven bowlers in the day and it said a lot that economical medium pace trundler Gourmet-Burger was the pick of the attack with two wickets.

All this put Surrey in a very strong position at the close, with power to add to a handy on Day 3 and a high-quality bowling attack raring to have a crack at our flaky batting lineup. Thankfully this became academic when it subsequently poured down with rain for the next two days, meaning no further play was possible after Day 2. The result was we escaped with a handy draw, not bad considering the stuffing we received from Surrey at the Oval back in late June.

Video highlights below:

Day 1

Day 2

Championship roundup: The slump is on after consecutive abject defeats

Gloucestershire's early season momentum is well and truly gone after two heavy Championship defeats in a week. Both efforts were pretty pathetic, but the innings defeat to Surrey was one of the low points of the season so far. We may be accused of trademark negativity here, but how else do you describe an innings and 180 run defeat inside three days, while failing to top 160 on either occasion. That was our 5th Championship loss of the season and it's hard to see us getting any better with the overall lack of quality in the squad and consequent absence of competition for places.

Essex 319 (ten Doeschate 73, Foster 63) and 117 for 5 (Westley 65*) beat Gloucestershire 116 (Napier 4-27) and 316 (Klinger 103) by five wickets
Scorecard

The Essex game actually started out reasonably well, with an even first day which saw Essex fight back from 169-5 to post 319 after Ryan Ten Doeschate's 73. Watching the video however, you can see the signs of things not going well, as stand-in keeper Geraint Jones shells an easy chance to dismiss Nick Browne off the bowling of Fuller. Gareth Roderick played in this match as a batsman only due to his damaged hand and let's hope it recovers soon. You can see why Jones has basically retired from keeping these days when you look at him shelling simple chances like this.

It all went downhill fairly rapidly from there though, as we were skittled for a meagre 116 on first innings (in 39 overs!) with Graham Napier taking 4-27. Best not to dwell on this other than the fact that this led to the inevitable follow on, with Glos ending the day still 77 behind at 126-3 on second innings. Day 3 saw one bright spot, as Michael Klinger completed his second championship century of the season, before we were bowled out for 316, leaving Essex 117 for victory.

They knocked these off without too many scares, despite losing Cook first ball and sent Glos to our 4th home Championship defeat in as many games. Not good to lose so heavily to a side like Essex who had struggled earlier in the season and who we beat comfortably by 9 wickets down at Chelmsford. That said, it only got worse below.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Surrey 448 (Foakes 118, Elgar 98, Ansari 64, Batty 50, Norwell 5-112) beat Gloucestershire 113 (Curran 7-20) and 155 (Tavare 58, Ansari 6-30) by an innings and 180 runs
Scorecard

We are not going to waste too much time on this, as the performance was fairly shambolic from start to finish. Once Surrey posted over 400 we were already predicting the follow on and it duly followed with yet another sub-150 total. A tenuous bright spot for 'Shire fans came as (son of sadly departed former Glos all-rounder Kevin) Tom Curran took a career-best 7-20 as he ripped through a wafer-thin Glos lineup stuffed with players either out of form or essentially un-droppable, due to lack of alternatives.

Predictably we were asked to follow on and this time it was the slow left arm of Zafar Ansari that did the damage. Despite a battling 58 from Will Tavare, his 6-30 hastened the second innings to a rapid close with Glos still 180 shy of making Surrey bat again. All in all a really bad performance and not one that bodes well for this week's T20 game against the same opponents at the Oval.

Both halves of the Jessop Tavern will actually be at the game, so heatstroke notwithstanding, readers will be able to read a surprisingly accurate recap (by our standards) later in the week.

Video highlights from 3 days of misery for 'Shire fans below.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Saved by the rain

Gloucestershire 134 (Dent 61, Masters 6-48) and 251 for 2 dec (Tavare 100*, A Gidman 119*) drew with Essex 305 for 8 dec (Foakes 132*, Foster 91)

Yes, we've been lazy. We have been on holiday, though. A rather belated summary of the 'shire's last LVCC game v Essex follows.

Rain. Bat poorly. Rain. Bowl ok. Tricky last day to navigate. Two quick wickets. Bat better. Two hundreds. Draw.

Day 2 Highlights:



Day 3 Highlights:



Day 4 Highlights:

No foot movement; gone! 6 cricketers to watch in 2013

We all know that even without our 'Jack' tinted glasses on that Alec Stewart was a complete tool as a player. It wasn't his fault that he got handed England's wicketkeeping gloves during the 1990's, but it was his fault that he ran between the wickets like a girl, twirled his bat like a tosser and had an infuriating tendency to flash pathetically outside off stump with no foot movement, nick the ball, and in the same continuous motion tuck his bat under his arm and trot off to the pavilion. We didn't like him one bit.

However, as a media man he has kind of grown on us. Stewart seems to have developed some bollocks  and a sense of humour and thus his recent pick of 6 kids to watch out for in 2013 sparked the Jessop Tavern View out of its debate over whether Gloucestershire were better than New Zealand's current test side. (Answer: quite possibly, yes)

Stewart's article can be read here.

The selection of Joe Root and Australia's James Pattinson are hardly a surprise, nor was that of Surrey's Stuart Meaker, even if he did look rubbish for England in his limited one day appearances.

The interesting three selections are the ones that round out Stewart's choices, all of whom come from that bubbling cauldron of future excellence, division 2 of the county championship. Stewart has selected Shiv Thakor of Leicestershire, Ben Foakes of Essex, and Daniel Bell-Drummond of Kent. All three of these guys are 19, which means very little has been seen of them and represents Stewart taking a total punt on them, which in fairness is the whole point of naming youngsters to watch. We have vague memories of Shiv Thakor scoring runs against us in the last game of the season, and certainly his average of 51 is by far the most impressive of the three.

What we are interested in is how close do any of the Gloucester youngsters get. Would Stewart's ghost written finely considered piece even have dwelt on people like Chris Dent, or Liam Norwell and Jack Taylor. We presume that the Will Gidmans, Ian Cockbains and Dan Housegos are a little bit too old to be fairly considered. The Jessop Tavern View doubts that dear old Alec did dwell on any of these names, and not only because he probably doesn't know that Gloucestershire still exist as a cricket club (somebody send him a brochure for a flat!) but because quite possibly these kids are really at the standard to be considered genuinely exciting prospects.

This is a thought that has lingered over the Jessop Tavern View for the past two seasons. Lets hope 2013 sees us put firmly in our place by the names aforementioned.