Glos seal a dominant win in casual style

Day 3: Glos 245 and 114 - 1 hammer Essex 159 and 199 by 9 wickets

If the first two games of the season indicated a Gloucestershire team in 2015 who teetered on the brink of being both half decent and half terrible then lets hope that a Liam Norwell-inspired victory tilts the balance in favour of the former, rather than the usual latter.

Glos have been here before in recent years. Many times. Many, many times. They look good. They look bad. A young player emerges and looks good. Then looks bad. A veteran player suddenly remembers the years when they were good. Then they look bad. You get the picture.

When Liam Norwell made his debut in 2011 with an impressive 6 for 46 that indicated a young fast bowler with plenty of wicket taking potential. Injuries have really prevented Norwell from progressing beyond being more than a rotation bowler used in the squad rather than a frontline leader of the attack. Maybe this will all change after he pretty much single-handedly won this match for Glos. Or maybe he will go back to being bad.

His second innings 6 for 33 were career best figures (as were his match figures of 10 for 65) but it was the bursts of wickets that made the difference. 4 wickets in 16 balls in the first innings was followed up with 3 wickets in 11 balls in the second innings, both spells essentially deciding the match as Essex failed to recover from either.

Remarkably, Glos then didn't then make us sweat as they knocked off the runs. The Jessop Tavern View would have had good money on a fifty partnership last stand for Essex coupled by a comedy collapse leading to a nervous run chase. No chance.

After their struggles in the last game against the mighty sabre of Martin Guptill, this performance from the bowlers demonstrated a real show of character to produce a win on a ground that hadn't seen a Gloucestershire win since 1930.

Slightly worryingly however seems to be the role of leading Gloucestershire bowler Craig Miles. Having started the season with 6 for 63 against Northants Miles seems to be struggling to make an impact. Glos seem to have decided he is better used as a second change bowler and so far this season Miles has barely been trusted with the new ball. Exactly why, we have absolutely no idea. The fun part of being a county cricket fan is that whilst you may be able to pick up on this sort of detail you'll be damned if you can find an answer to it.

Still, this aside, Glos now have one win, one loss and one draw on the season. A far from terrible start. We have a young bowling attack finding its feet, and a batting line-up who whilst being century-shy are at least all contributing. A tail that starts at 8 with either Craig Miles or James Fuller is still the real weak link but hey, this is division two. Teams at this level are supposed to have glaring flaws.

Video highlights from Days 2 and 3:

Glos out-do their doppelgangers

Gloucestershire 77 for 0 (Dent 42*, Tavare 32*) trail Essex 159 (Mickleburgh 42, Norwell 4-32) by 82 runs

Everyone once in a while you encounter a side very similar to your own. Essex may well be that side. Captained by former England wicketkeepers, both sides feature talented young number 3 batsmen, portly Kiwi allrounders, ageing Southern Hemisphere batsmen masquerading as EU players, young left arm seamers who have regressed a bit after promising starts, plus a smattering of handy young Englishmen. Oh, and England's Ravi Bopara has represented both counties, although with varying degrees of success.

One other similarity is both counties' love of the batting collapse. Considering the level of talent available in the Essex batting lineup, they have had a tremendous number of comic batting collapses in recent year. Not least the hilarious 20 all out against Lancashire referenced in Cricinfo's write up of today's play. Thus it was no great surprise when, having been put in after losing the toss on a rain-delayed first day, Essex failed to capitalise on a solid opening partnership of 61. Liam Norwell decided to bowl fewer four balls than usual and benefited to the tune of 4 for 2 in two overs as Essex struggled to 106-8. David Payne also got into the act, taking 3 wickets of his own, although at a more typical economy rate of almost 5 an over.

A final connection between the two sides is the Malik family link. Essex have signed the younger brother of former Pakistan captain and Glos overseas player, Shoaib 'double top' Malik on a short-term contract. A good job too, as the 29 year old struck a valuable 25 coming in at number 9 to help Essex from a truly awful first innings total to one which is merely bad.

Still, 159 all out was put into perspective as Dent and Tavare set about a decent opening partnership of their own, reaching 77 without loss at the close under sunny skies. The Jessop Tavern View is by no means as optimistic as Cricinfo's Tim Wigmore, who signed off by saying Gloucestershire may be envisaging their first win at Chelmsford since 1930. We would simply be happy if the boys manage to avoid a repeat performance of Essex's batting performance tomorrow.

Video highlights from Day 1 below:

You know when you've been Guptill-ed

Day 3: Glos 275 and 253 - 6 v Derbyshire 545 - 9 dec.

The Jessop Tavern View was unable to post yesterday as they were still helping out the Glos ground staff retrieve the various balls that Martin Guptill had deposited into various areas of the Nevil Road area yesterday.

The Jessop Tavern View is confused as to when Martin Guptill became such a complete animal. His double hundred came in double quick time, which off the back of his world cup barbarism only helps whet the appetite for what he might do to Chris Jordan's medium pacers in the test series next month. In fairness, he was helped in no small part by Glos skipper Geraint Jones who proved that it isn't just when he has the gloves on that he can't catch. Glos again shelled catches left right and centre on day 2 to continue their circus juggling act from the first game of the season when they similarly couldn't catch a cold.

On day 3 Gloucestershire threatened to fight back with Will Tavare and Gareth Roderick both offering decent resistance before being unable to convert their starts into substantial innings. For both these batsmen the start to this season has been encouraging, but neither has made a telling contribution. Roderick now has four fifties in as many innings making him Gloucestershire's very own Shane Watson. Let's hope he breaks the shackles and brings home a big ton next time out.

Again the Shire's story of their first two games has been all about losing the crucial moments in games. At 118 for 1 and on a flattening wicket Glos had the opportunity to really start to frustrate Derby. Instead they lost 4 quick wickets to all but seal the deal. Late in the day Hamish O'Mish and the Gourmet Burger then proceeded to take Gloucestershire up to parity in the match and the Jessop Tavern was thinking, 'well, if these two get through to the close and then we can find 150 runs tomorrow morning it might make things a little bit interesting'.

However, no sooner had the thought formed then Gourmet Burger fell to a sneaky legside trap that presumably left Kieran Noema-Barnett feeling similar to when he is lulled into eating a Quorn burger by mistake. Thus O'Mish will now have to spend the night teaching our warren of rabbits which end of the bat to hold.

To be fair to Glos, take out Guptill's barbaric knock and this has been a very even contest. The Jessop Tavern is going to start a petition against anyone who has played international cricket in the last 3 years from being allowed to play in Division 2.

Glos fail to seize the initiative

Day 1: Glos 275 v Derbyshire 24 - 0.

Having lost the toss in bowler friendly conditions Glos would probably have taken 275 from their first innings before play began yesterday.

However, having reached lunch on 104 for 2 and having done the hard work they will now been disappointed that no batsman managed to go on and produce a match defining score. Several of them had chances. Chris Dent swashbuckled a run a ball 22, Chris Tavare looked secure for 48 and Hamish O'Mish ground away for his 41. However, it will be the in-form Gareth Roderick who will be most frustrated. Three successive fifties in three county championship innings this season is an excellent return from your keeper, but batting at 3 Roderick will know that he now needs to start converting these scores into the dreaded Graham Gooch coined 'Daddy Hundred's'. Having reached 76, Roderick tamely gave his wicket away to a weak pull to midwicket and the innings never recovered.

Yet again Gloucestershires tail failed to provide any support. The last 6 wickets contributed only 48 runs. This follows on from the 0 for 4 effort that the tail managed in the first innings against Northants and will be a major cause of concern moving forward. James Fuller is an entertaining dasher, but he isn't a number 8 and Miles, Norwell and Taylor are three genuine number 11s (all be it Miles might have some potential) It is hard to know exactly how this needs to be addressed. Will Gidman would be the obvious answer.

Hopefully the pitch will continue to aid the seamers today and Glos can bowl themselves back into the contest. Given that the bowlers now need to perform, it was curious to see the Shire's best bowler, Craig Miles, not given the new ball and 3 overs late last night to try and strike an early blow in Derbyshire's innings.

Gritty Chris Dents Tavern Pessimism

Northamptonshire 333 (Rossington 95, Willey 62, Miles 6-63) and 416 for 8 dec (Willey 104*, Keogh 81, Cobb 58) drew with Gloucestershire 296 (Jones 80, Roderick 56, Willey 4-72) and 267 for 2 (Dent 104*, Tavare 66, Roderick 52) 

The good thing about writing a little-read blog about county cricket is that when you're wrong, only about 20 people have read your doom-laden predictions from previous posts. Thus you can change your tune and rely on the fact that few people are going to slate you on Twitter as they simply won't have read what you said a couple of day's ago.

So, it fills us with pleasure to be able to report that Gloucestershire managed to comfortably bat out the final day at Wantage Road to secure a draw in our first Championship fixture of 2015. Chris Dent batted throughout the day to score his 6th first class century- amazingly his first in the Championship since August 2013. Dent was well-supported by first Will Tavare (66), second Gareth Roderick (scoring his 2nd 50 of the match) and finally Peter Handscomb on a day when only two wickets fell.

We are pleased that Dent seems to finally be knuckling down and attempting to fulfil his potential. At the age of 24 and after 68 first class matches, he should be looking to boost his first class average beyond 34. Scoring a match-salvaging unbeaten hundred is a good way to start. Let's hope this year is the one where Chris scores a KP-equalling load of Division 2 runs to prove himself a really good batsman.

What else to take away from our first game of the season, then? It would appear that the new coaching team has already managed to instil a certain grit in the side, as evidenced by our willingness to knuckle down and bat out day 4 for a draw. This is especially encouraging after the amount of tap the bowlers took from Willey and others on Day 3, when the prospect of being able to win the match was taken away from us rather quickly. It would have been easy to roll over in the face of a huge target, but we navigated the final day with ease. Let's hope we continue to see more of this as the season wears on, it's something we will undoubtedly need, especially in away fixtures against stronger sides.

We do need to work on our fielding though. The 'shire dropped a number of catches in the game, 5 in the first innings alone and Dent subsequently shelled another on the 4th morning. This is something which can be worked on and fixed relatively easily. The bowlers also need to stop bowling endless four balls when under pressure. Easier said than down, but it was worrying to listen to the radio commentary on Day 4 and listen to Fuller get taken apart to the tune of 6-a-over by Willey et al.

Anyway, we should end on a positive note for a chance- a good away draw, against decent opposition and Derbyshire to come in our our home opener next week, Onwards and upwards!

Video highlights from Day 4 are below:

We repeat....

Day 3: Northants 333 and 416 for 8 dec v Glos 296 and 35 for 0

Yesterday the Jessop Tavern View wrote about Gloucestershire's love of getting into promising positions only to throw them away. What we also didn't add was that Glos also had the uncanny ability to turn potentially winning situations into not just losing ones, but to turn them into positions of comprehensive defeats.

Today the Shire did just that. The first session was always going to be key. The first hour doubly so. Gloucestershire's still raw seam attack got stuck in and performed wonderfully taking 3 key wickets. And then the wheels came off. 100 for 5 became 418 for 8 off the back of some belligerent hitting from David Willey. Willey isn't exactly the first bowler to register his maiden first class ton against the Shire, but the way in which he dismissed James Fuller in particular will be a worry moving forward.

Cricket is always about recognising key passages of play and then finding the extra gear to seize these moments. Gloucestershire clearly talked about this today. Recognised that the first hour was crucial. Then set about their task fantastically well. Sadly no one had told them to keep their foot on the oppositions throat once the moment was seized.

If King John were still here he would tell us all about how this is a young team still learning their trade. Since he isn't around it was left to new coach Richard Dawson to be quoted after the day's play as saying "Myself and Ian Harvey were sat there thinking why would this happen?" Perhaps a read of the Jessop Tavern View back catalogue will provide him with at least some context.

The Shire didn't help themselves with several shelled catches at crucial moments however and the pre-season concerns over the bowling unit were very evidently highlighted today. Let's hope the boys can turn it around else it could be a long season. With 418 to score in a day it would take something pretty remarkable tomorrow for this match to be turned around.

Video highlights from Day 3 are below:

Wily Willey goes through shaky lower order to leave Glos in trouble

Day 2: Northants 333 and 68 for 2 v Glos 296.

The return of the county championship every year is always like the return of a lost friend to your life. The comfortable, warm feeling of familiarity has an immediately relaxing impact, only to fairly shortly be replaced by the realisation that nothing much has changed.

For 2015, it appears not so much has changed yet for Gloucstershire under the new coaching regime. Glos get themselves into a good position. Glos allow the opposition off the hook. Glos fight back and get themselves into a good position. Glos collapse. Glos fight back. Glos crumble. It's a well-worn pattern that leads to 7th place in division 2 and the occasional excitement of a quarter final in a one day cup.

We won't get too down on the boys (we'll save that till July) but yesterday was a disappointing day. After a promising start from the top three who all got themselves in, Gloucestershire then lost a clatter of wickets to find themselves struggling on 185 for 5. Captain Jones led the recovery, to get Glos right back in the mix at 296 for 7 only for David Willey to take 3 of the final 4 wickets without a run being sored to leave Gloucestershire trailing by 37 runs. Craig Miles then took two quick wickets to give the Shire a sniff of a chance, only for Alex Wakely to shut the door and leave Northants a comfortable looking lead of 105. The first session on Tuesday will be vital.

On paper Gloucestershire's batting is very definitely the strength of this team, however a slight suspicion remains as to whether there might be a few too many dashers in the current line-up. Will Tavare aside, the rest of the top 7 all look like players happy to swish around for a bit before departing for a slightly unsatisfying 20 or 30. Yes, we are looking at you Hamish O'Marshall!

Hopefully several of them will run into form and negate this observation with a summer of highly entertaining cricket where the sound of leather thudding into boundary boards follows Gloucestershire around the county circuit. And not just when we are bowling.

So, a crucial first session for Glos today. We will make no mention of the fact that we told you that lower order looked shaky yesterday!

Video highlights from Day are below: