Gloucestershire miss out on promotion despite 3-wicket win

Gloucestershire missed out on promotion from the second division of the County Championship, despite an exciting three-wicket victory over Nottinghamshire at Bristol.

Mark Alleyne's side were hoping to add promotion to their unprecedented one-day treble this season, but were undone by events elsewhere.

Glamorgan secured enough bonus points from their draw with Middlesex at Cardiff to take one of the two remaining promotion places, while Essex secured the other with a run chase win over Warwickshire at Chelmsford.

Even so, Gloucestershire can look take satisfaction from their championship campaign. Six wins and fourth place was a considerable improvement on last year, when they finished bottom.

With Nottinghamshire also in the hunt for promotion, both captains were keen to set up a contrived finish on the final day.

Play was delayed for an hour by a damp outfield and Nottinghamshire were handed a first innings advantage of 143 when Gloucestershire declared on their overnight 73-1.

Nottinghamshire then raced to 104-3 in 18.5 overs before captain Jason Gallian declared their second innings shortly after lunch to leave the home side needing 248 for victory in a minimum of 59 overs.

Usman Afzaal passed 1,000 first-class runs for the season during his innings of 36, which ended with a superb, one-handed catch by Ben Gannon at square leg off Jon Lewis.

Guy Welton and Mark Bowen, in his final first-class innings before retirement, also fell victim to Lewis, whose 3-50 lifted his tally of wickets for the season to 72 - second only to Worcesterhsire's Glenn McGrath.

Dominic Hewson and Kim Barnett got the Gloucestershire run chase off to a good start with a stand of 42 in nine overs before Hewson was bowled by Bowen for 18.

Bowen then had Barnett caught behind by Chris Read for 28, while Ian Harvey was caught down the legside by Read off David Lucas for ten.

When Matt Windows was brilliantly taken by Bowen at mid-on off Lucas for 38, the game was neatly poised at 138-4 in the 33rd over.

But Jack Russell then swung it Gloucestershire's way with a fine 53 from 94 balls before he was caught by Read off Paul Franks.

Left-arm spinner Richard Stemp had already taken the wickets of Jeremy Snape and Alleyne by then, but there was no denying Gloucestershire their victory.

Chris Taylor was joined by Lewis and the pair shared an unbroken eighth wicket stand of 36 in six overs, as Gloucestershire got home with nine balls to spare.

Taylor finished with three boundaries in his 51-ball innings of 38 not out, while Lewis was unbeaten on 16.