(writes Andrew Hignell)
Glamorgan continue their first-class campaign with a visit to Bristol to meet Gloucestershire in the Specsavers County Championship with the four-day contest scheduled to get underway at 11am on Sunday, June 23rd.
After their draw against Middlesex at Radlett, Glamorgan remain in second place in the Division Two table, nineteen points ahead of Gloucestershire in fifth place who last week were involved in a high-scoring draw at Grace Road where the West Country side employed ten bowlers in Leicestershire’s second innings as each of the home team’s batsmen scored unbeaten hundreds on the final afternoon.
The Welsh county opened their Championship campaign in 2018 with a nail-biting win at Bristol with victory only being clinched in the closing overs and amidst gloomy conditions as Aneurin Donald fortuitously top-edged a hook for six. It set up Glamorgan’s first win in red ball cricket at Gloucestershire’s headquarters since April 2008 when they were victorious by the more comfortable margin of 114 runs after David Hemp had completed half-centuries in each innings whilst Jason Gillespie had delivered a feisty spell of seam bowling.
Glamorgan’s previous visit to Bristol in 2016 saw the West Country victorious despite a fine 99 from David Lloyd in Glamorgan’s first innings, but batting for a second time and chasing a target of 269 in 76 overs on the final day, Glamorgan nosedived from 87-0 to 120-8 before losing the game by 125 runs.
The previous games between Gloucestershire and Glamorgan at Bristol had been high-scoring affairs, with the contest in 2015 seeing the Welsh county rattle up 433 in their first innings with rookie Aneurin Donald ending two runs short of a maiden first-class hundred. Gloucestershire then replied with a bumper 558, with Chris Dent posting a career-best 268, before assured centuries on the final day by Colin Ingram and Chris Cooke saw the contest end all-square.
The contest at Bristol sees several Glamorgan bowlers on the cusp of reaching personal milestones with Marchant de Lange going into the game with 299 first-class wickets to his name, whilst Tim van der Gugten has 148 and the evergreen Graham Wagg 444.