Glos ease relegation fears with rapid win (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Glos ease relegation fears with rapid win

Philip Weston led the way with 72 as Gloucestershire, minus Jon Lewis, eased their totesport League relegation fears with a comfortable five-wicket win over Hampshire at Cheltenham.

After winning the toss, the Hawks slumped from 78-1 to 186 all out, wasting almost five overs of their innings.

Nic Pothas (40), Sean Ervine (43) and Shane Watson (40) all got out when well set as Mark Hardinges claimed four wickets for 40 runs for the Gladiators.

Gloucestershire never looked in any trouble as Craig Spearman helped Weston put on 48 for the first wicket.

Then Matt Windows chipped in with an attractive 58, helping the Gladiators skate home with more than 10 overs to spare.

Weston was in dominating form, reaching his half-century off 57 balls, with nine fours.

His partnership with Windows was worth 106 in 18 overs and ended any lingering doubt about the result.

SCORES

Test Match

Harare: New Zealand 452-9 (D L Vettori 127, B B McCullum 111, S P Fleming 73) v Zimbabwe

Triangular Tournament

Colombo: India 262-4 (Yuvraj Singh 110, M Kaif 83 no) v West Indies 255-9 (R S Morton 84, D Ramdin 74 no) India beat West Indies by 7 runs.

Frizzell County Championship

Division Two: Derby: Somerset 460 (W J Durston 146 no, A V Suppiah 123, J C Hildreth 73, G Welch 4-82) & 245-5 dec (I D Blackwell 88 no) v Derbyshire 438-8 dec (A G Botha 91, A K D Gray 77 no, Hassan Adnan 74, G Welch 72, A R Caddick 4-102) & 262 (J Moss 106, S D Stubbings 55, I D Blackwell 4-86) Somerset (21pts) beat Derbyshire (7pts) by 5 runs.

Totesport League

Division One: Southend: Essex Eagles 202-8 (R C Irani 61) v Middlesex Crusaders 198-9 (P N Weekes 82, B J M Scott 50 no) Essex beat Middlesex by 4 runs. Cheltenham: Hampshire Hawks 186 (M A Hardinges 4-40) v Gloucestershire Gladiators 188-5 (W P C Weston 72, M G N Windows 58) Gloucestershire beat Hampshire by 5 wkts.

Division Two: Canterbury: Kent Spitfires 211-10 (N C Saker 4-43) v Surrey Lions 212-5 (J N Batty 82, A D Brown 65) Surrey beat Kent by 5 wkts. The Citylets Grange: Scottish Saltires 203-9 (J A Beukes 78) v Yorkshire Phoenix 207-5 (P A Jaques 57) Yorkshire beat Scotland by 5 wkts. Hove: Sussex Sharks 223-8 (C J Adams 78, O D Gibson 4-37) v Leicestershire Foxes 227-4 (H D Ackerman 114 no, D L Maddy 93) Leicestershire beat Sussex by 6 wkts.