THOUGH Gloucestershire, put in on a pitch offering movement to the seamers, had slightly the worst of the conditions, they deservedly overcame fierce rivals Somerset and levelled the score in this competition at six wins apiece.

Gloucestershire's innings gained little momentum against good seam bowling from Andrew Caddick, Graham Rose and Dermot Reeve, until Tony Wright, 44, and Bobby Dawson, 31, put on 62 in 14 overs before the latter swept once too often at Mushtaq Ahmed to be lbw.

Mark Alleyne batted fluently until brilliantly caught in the gully. With four overs left, Gloucestershire were only 183 for six with Somerset seemingly in control but since their four main bowlers had all completed 10 overs, inferior practitioners had to bowl.

Gold Award winner Jon Lewis, with 33 off 13 balls, and Matt Windows (24), punished Marcus Trescothick, Keith Parsons and Michael Burns so severely that those four overs yielded 51 runs and changed the complexion of the match.

Mike Smith's opening burst kept Gloucestershire on top and when Alleyne caught and bowled Rob Turner in the 34th over, Somerset were 110 for seven and sinking fast.

However, Trescothick, with 49, and Reeve (26) put on 61 in nine overs to give Somerset hope. But when Reeve was bowled, hitting across Lewis, Somerset never looked likely to achieve the required 10 runs per over.