Glamorgan welcome Gloucestershire to Sophia Gardens, Cardiff for their first home match in the Bob Willis Trophy with the four-day contest scheduled to start at 11.00am on Saturday, August 15th (writes Andrew Hignell)
Whilst Glamorgan secured a draw at Worcester in the recent round of matches in the newly-instigated first-class competition, Gloucestershire clinched a last gasp victory by 78 runs over Warwickshire earlier this week at Bristol. It was at the West Country team’s headquarters last summer where the Welsh county defeated Gloucestershire by four wickets, with Marnus Labuschagne helping his adopted county successfully chase a target of 188 in 49 overs after yet another fine bowling performance by the evergreen Michael Hogan whose spell of 4/22 in the home side’s second innings helped to set up the helter-skelter chase during the final afternoon.
It was a different story though the last time Gloucestershire visited Glamorgan’s headquarters during 2018 with the West Country side winning by nine wickets after Jack Taylor made a vibrant century whilst his brother Matt took five wickets in the Welsh county's second innings. Teenager Ben Charlesworth also made 72 whilst Craig Miles – now with Warwickshire – completed an eight-wicket match haul.
The contest between the two teams at Sophia Gardens at the end of the 2017 season proved to be a high-scoring draw with Kiran Carlson scoring a superb 191 as he came within nine runs of being both the Club’s youngest centurion and double-centurion. Gloucestershire had been victorious in the Championship game at Cardiff in 2016 as the visitors opted to bowl first before Hamish Marshall, the veteran Kiwi batsman, rounded off his distinguished career with the West Country side by completing a fine hundred, before the visitors eased to a ten-wicket victory.
Once again, there are some notable personal milestones looming for the Glamorgan players with Michael Hogan still seeking the one victim he needs to reach the outstanding landmark of 600 first-class wickets. Graham Wagg also requires four further wickets to reach the milestone of 250 first-class wickets for Glamorgan, whilst batsman Billy Root, after his excellent century in the first innings at Worcester, needs a further 53 runs for 1,000 first-class runs for his adopted county.