With rain forecast to roll in like those Armageddon threats we seem to get every month from the government to keep us all in-line, a decent Bank Holiday crowd stayed away as the predicted warm weather failed to materialise yet again.
If the weathe
rmen can't even predict the forecast for the weekend properly then how can they have an opinion on man made global warming 20 years from now!
To cap it all, the same public broadcasting website said there was no play when the game was 15 overs in, deterring more paying punters!
Reduced to 39 overs-a-side, the Steelbacks raced away at seven-an-over, perhaps anticipating another rain break in the innings, but losing regular wickets.
This was Pro40 territory, not our best forte, with Riki Wessels still the sweetest hitter in the team with 39.
Nicky Boje tried to anchor with 30-odd around the muddled tactic and so came the inevitable collapse.
Steven Crook and Mark Nelson worked well together in the critical middle overs on a turning wicket to restore order before the bungled batting powerplay left the Steelbacks too late to exploit it, the last three wickets scoring just nine from the said four overs. This just scrambled the score up to 200, Crook top-scoring with 42.
With rain still around it was not going to be fun to chase for the Welsh, the cold and grey illuminating the glaring D/L score even more as the chase slipped away, the Steelbacks determined to end their 10 one-day game losing streak by exploiting that Welsh reticence.
A few disloyal punters went home early in the tea break (guilty!) as the rain and cold seemed to set in once again, Radio Wales detailing Glamorgan's feeble run chase for me as Andrew Hall did the damage with four for 14, tuning up for the approaching Twenty20.
David Lucas stung the knuckles with a superb one for 15 off six, but it should be Crook that earns the man-of-the match award for the welcome victory, our first since July 24 last year, his one for 31 to go with his 42 runs, a rapid improvement with the ball from the last two games.
When he scores more with the bat than he concedes with the ball as an all-rounder he's very effective, and encouragingly that whippy pace returned from 18 months back.
Robert Croft on Radio Wales certainly enjoyed his efforts.
Maybe the absence of your critical Chron columnist in the second half was the real incentive for the players to go on and win their first game of the season!
So who would have thought it, Gloucestershire finally winning their first championship match for nearly two years, and David Wigley second in the national bowling averages – all in the same match!
Gloucestershire are not even tipped to finish above Glamorgan, but returning coach John Bracewell already working his magic.
Going into what was the first real chance of a win this season for Northants in any competition, the loss of star men Johan van der Wath and David Sales to injury was the decisive factor here, the keystone positions that would have delivered the much-needed victory.
The baffling selection of one-day player Crook by David Capel over his new bowling signings to replace the South African was the first eyebrow raiser, the coach clearly looking for the extra security of batting to secure a draw if our bowling got 'tonked'.
Happily, it didn't, and we had a good first day, but just letting the game slip when we had them at 136 for six, the eventual 287 all-out par for the course on what looked like a 350 wicket.
Wigley's career best six for 72 as surprising as it was welcome, and was sweet revenge for his failed loan period at the south west county last season.
Wigley's supporters were jubilant, others said 'about time'. This was his first five-wicket haul in his seven-year championship career.
As amiable a chap as he is, we have waited a long time for that performance, and one good soufflé doesn't make a Hell's Kitchen winner!
But he has improved year-on-year, and that's all the fans ask.
If he gets 50 first-class scalps this summer maybe we will buy him a six-pack, although the ladies say he's already got one! Hazel told me!
After ViewFromTheBlues had his yearly sit down with 'Don' Capello to hear how the coach is getting things mostly right and the unpaid columnist is getting things mostly wrong, and letting the club down in the process, Northants did just that on the pitch, going from 117 for three to 161 all out, the gutsy and aggressive Kirby the architect with four for 41.
Me and the coach went our separate ways shaking our heads.
In perfect conditions, on a decent wicket, we can't afford to be throwing away positions like that when we are under-strength at this time of the year against the lesser teams.
To be fair, captain Boje tried hard to hold it all together with a measured 50, but the team are really missing the guaranteed runs of Sales and the usurped Lance Klusener up the batting.
A Northants century would have won this match.
But the damage was done and the chance gone, a Glamorgan-style collapse a worrying development.
Gloucestershire eagerly exploited the surprise capitulation and batted quickly and confidently second time around, until they remembered they weren't that good, but they managed a 371 lead with 237 all-out, Wiggers bagging his ninth victim of the match.
With Gloucestershire carrying bowling injuries, they were still up for it, always on their toes.
Northants are rarely animated on the pitch when we field, and that is one of the fans' biggest gripes.
At 102 for five and another excellent half-century from Wessels (yet again failing to go on and score a 100), half of the 50 fans or so still in the ground went home expecting not to be back tomorrow, the season nadir already close.
But the increasingly impressive David Willey (43) showed yet more bottle in that critical middle-order, sharing a hundred partnership with Hall (91), who seems really up for it this year, fit and flying, willing to fill that Zulu chasm.
And Willey?
If you're reading this, ask the boss if you can open until Peters is better. You are doing the team proud.
Capel's inclusion of Crook nearly proved a masterstroke on the final day as the Aussie tried to drive the tail over the line with his dashing 55.
Alas it was all in vain, 326 all out some 45 short, a good effort and repairing the damage a thumping defeat would have brought to morale this early on in the season.
I think it's fair to say that at full-strength Northants would have beaten Gloucestershire on our patch.
A better performance against Essex this week is a must now, and let's hope for a bit more punch in the bowling department, Lee Daggett's surely worth a go.
Wigley can't win the championship all on his own!
