In a round of matches in which the Midlands “derby” in Leicester has one set of South Africans bowling at another, it is a delight to report that this clash of the Cotswolds has been dominated by cricketers born in England and Wales. After Simon Jones helped to reduce Gloucestershire to 85 for five with two wickets in his first eight balls, Chris Taylor and Steve Snell led an exhilarating recovery.

Taking advantage of a short pavilion boundary and a pitch with bounce, they added 222 at a galloping 4.2 runs per over as Taylor, who is Bristol-born, reached his first century for ten months and Snell, raised on the Isle of Wight, recorded the first of his career. This after the quartet of foreign batsmen heading the order had fallen in the opening hour.

Steve Magoffin stood up for the southern hemisphere by ripping out the off stump of Marcus North, his Western Australia captain, and by removing Alex Gidman with one of the odd balls that stopped. But Taylor hit three sixes off Gareth Batty before going to the same bowler for 137 and Snell, preferred to Steve Adshead as wicketkeeper, achieved his landmark in his seventh championship match.

The way in which Snell, joined by Mark Hardinges, helped hammer 88 runs from 16 overs of the new ball suggests that, for all the early life in the pitch, it has now settled into the usual, early-season norm. Hardinges raced to a fifty off only 43 balls but there should be an opportunity for Worcestershire to wreak revenge against the visting team's attack, which is shorn of both new-ball spearheads, Jon Lewis and Steve Kirby.

Matters were less comfortable first time around. Jones found the lift to take the shoulder of Grant Hodnett's bat, having the South African held in the gully, and he forced Craig Spearman to fend to short leg. Gareth Andrew brought a flashing drive from Hamish Marshall with little movement of the feet to see him caught behind and North, driving at Magoffin's inswinger, was spectacularly bowled through the gate.

History, the weather and Gloucestershire's depleted bowling line-up are against the county achieving a first championship win on Worcestershire soil since July, 1986 but, with over 400 runs scored, they have certainly given themselves room for manouevre.

Gloucestershire: First Innings
G P Hodnett c Batty b S P Jones 1
C M Spearman c Moore b S P Jones 7
H J H Marshall c Davies b Andrew 20
M J North b Magoffin 15
*A P R Gidman c Davies b Magoffin 24
C G Taylor c Davies b Batty 137
S D Snell not out 127
M A Hardinges not out 66
Extras (lb 2, nb 12) 14
Total (6 wkts, 96 overs) 411

M T Gitsham, W D Rudge and A J Ireland to bat.
Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-8, 3-42, 4-50, 5-85, 6-307.
Bowling: Magoffin 22-4-99-2; S P Jones 19-2-78-2; Andrew 24-3-102-1; R A Jones 10-2-41-0; Batty 19-3-84-1; Mitchell 2-0-5-0.

Worcestershire: D K H Mitchell, S C Moore, *V S Solanki, B F Smith, G A Hick, S M Davies, G J Batty, G M Andrew, R A Jones, S J Magoffin, S P Jones.

Umpires: G I Burgess and G Sharp.

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