New Road

(day three of four; Gloucestershire won toss)

Worcestershire 189-9 (49 overs), GA Hick 60; Gloucestershire 444 (107.2 overs), CG Taylor 137, SD Snell 127, MA Hardinges 82, SP Jones 5-92

Lunch

Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England and a passionate cricket supporter, came to New Road in the morning but brought weather as gloomy as his prognosis for the economy.

It had rained continuously for six hours by the time play was scheduled to start at 11am and, although it then stopped, no play was possible before lunch. Realistically, the earliest start looks like being around 3pm.

Simon Jones, who on Thursday completed his first five-wicket bag since August, 2005, said: "It's the best I've felt in ages. I'd like another couple of months bowling flat out to continue my recovery...it's always nice to prove people wrong.

And it would be nice for the four of us (the England pace attack that won the Ashes) to get back together again for 2009, but it will be hard to break into this present England side".

Worcestershire have confirmed that Steve Magoffin will now stay with the club until early July, making him available for the Twenty20 Cup. Fidel Edwards, the West Indies fast bowler, is then scheduled to replace him as the club's one official overseas player.

Tea

Play eventually began at 2.40pm, with the loss of 124 overs in the match by then, and the effect of all the rain soon became clear. Worcestershire lost three batsmen and saw Daryl Mitchell retire hurt for an x-ray on his left elbow in the first hour. But Graeme Hick, himself just back from elbow surgery, ironically, led the fightback in familiar confident vein to tea.

With the ball nipping about testingly, Mitchell, getting correctly forward, was struck by one that spat nastily from a length. In his next over, the bowler, Will Rudge, found Vikram Solanki creasebound and rather hanging his bat to give a catch to third slip and when Mark Hardinges replaced Rudge he removed Stephen Moore with his fourth ball. The in-form South African was splendidly caught off a defensive edge by Steve Snell, diving to his right behind the stumps.

At the other end, completing Gloucestershire's makeshift seam attack, Anthony Ireland began with six consecutive new-ball maidens before bringing a drive from Ben Smith at a rare wide ball that flew straight to point. At 52 for three (effectively four) the home side still needed 243 to avoid the follow-on, but Graeme Hick restored calm with a fifty from only 53 balls.

Close

Alex Gidman, the acting captain, brought himself on for the second over after tea and it proved another inspired change when he took the prime wicket of Hick with his fourth ball. Out for 60 from 62 balls, Hick was a further victim of this odd pitch when one stopped on him as he attempted to clip off the pads, giving a gentle catch to short mid-wicket.

Each switch of bowler brought a further success as five wickets fell in 12 overs before Mitchell bravely returned at No11 with severe bruising. He stayed through the nine balls that carried play to a premature close due to bad light but will surely not prevent the follow-on on Saturday. Trailing by 255 runs overnight, Worcestershire still require 106 to avoid that indignity.

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