Rain washes away victory hopes in Cheltenham

Rain washed away any hopes of a positive finish to the CricInfo Championship second division match between Gloucestershire and Hampshire at Cheltenham.

The visitors had reached 40-1 from 22 overs, after being set 350 to win, when wet weather arrived to rule out any play after 3pm.

A draw was already looking likely with Hampshire having shown no interest in the stiff target set by Gloucestershire captain Mark Alleyne.

Promotion-chasing Hampshire were initially given a minimum of 67 overs in which to record their sixth win of the campaign, but this was reduced by two overs when a shower delayed the resumption after lunch.

Ian Harvey provided Gloucestershire's sole success when, in the ninth over, he had Derek Kenway caught at long leg by Alastair Bressington.

Earlier, Gloucestershire had advanced their overnight 104-1 on to 245-6 declared.

Kim Barnett missed out on his second championship hundred of the season when, on 93, he swept Shaun Udal to Jason Laney at deep midwicket. His 161-ball innings contained 11 fours.

The search for quick runs then resulted in the loss of three wickets in four overs as Chris Taylor and Harvey gave further catches to Laney, off Neil Johnson and Udal respectively, and Jeremy Snape was caught by Will Kendall at short midwicket off Udal.

Alleyne and Jack Russell responded with an unbroken seventh wicket stand of 49 in eight overs before the declaration came a few minutes before lunch.

Udal finished as Hampshire's most successful bowler with 3-85 and a match return of 7-161.

Gloucestershire took ten points from the match, while Hampshire claimed eight to remain in the third promotion place.