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Gloucestershire's old heads break Yorkshire hearts again

Gloucestershire (240-7) bt Yorkshire (234-6) by six runs

One day, when Yorkshire win a knockout competition, they will recall the grim memories of this summer, which tempted them with all manner of gifts and which leaves them, as the tempted often are, awash with misery. Six runs. It could have been achieved with one bold stroke. Instead the divide was as broad as the Severn.

Gloucestershire have really taken to them this year. Two weeks ago they beat Yorkshire by 124 runs to win the Benson and Hedges Super Cup, and they also won the National League game by four runs more. They return to Lord's on Aug 29 to play Somerset in the final of the NatWest Trophy, and they will go there feeling not the slightest bit abashed.

At the end of a week when the talk has been of giving youth its head they owed a huge amount to three men who will not see 30 again. Kim Barnett, 39, joined the club last winter after running out of patience with Derbyshire. His innings of 98 showed what an old head can do on a slow pitch. Because he batted as well as he did, and as long as he did, Gloucestershire were able to set a formidable target.

Mike Smith, 31, and a tyke in exile, then bowled his 10 overs straight through at the start of the Yorkshire reply for 20 runs, taking the important wicket of Craig White. His bowling allied to Ian Harvey's clever fiddling at the end, topped and tailed a fine effort by the whole side.

Nobody was finer than Jack Russell, who celebrated his 36th birthday with an outstanding display of attacking wicketkeeping, capped by the stumping that dismissed Anthony McGrath. So long as he was standing up to the bowlers, sniffing trouble, no batsman could rest. He was quite superb.

It was hard on Yorkshire, who needed 50 from the last five overs. Thanks to Gary Fellows, a 21-year-old all-rounder from Halifax, they almost supplied a surprise. Fellows took 19 of the 20 runs Michael Cawdron conceded off the penultimate over, twice pulling him off the front foot over the ropes at midwicket.

With a dozen needed from the last over, bowled by Harvey, Yorkshire needed two more big hits. Fellows made room to drive one of them, and lost his off stump to the fourth ball. David Byas, who had batted with good sense, finished unbeaten on 71, and it was a philosophical captain who admitted later that Gloucestershire were worth their win. He is a noble man, Byas, and deserves to hold up a cup one day.

Barnett did that at Lord's in 1993, as the Derbyshire captain, and though his days of leadership have gone he can still provide direction with his bat. He began slowly here, picking up his first run as late as the sixth over, and narrowly surviving a run-out appeal as he doubled his score. But he sensed it was going to be a long haul, and he settled in for the journey.

His first fifty came off 112 balls and when he was out he had taken only 33 balls to find a further 48. That second period was a splendid piece of batting. He took three successive boundaries off Ryan Sidebottom in an over that cost 23, and a boundary pushed behind square leg in the bowler's next over was the best shot of a good day.

Barnett added 100 for the third wicket with Rob Cunliffe and although Yorkshire clawed things back in the last few overs, they would always find the challenge of scoring five runs an over daunting. Nor were they helped by the absence of Chris Silverwood, who withdrew before the game to look after his wife, who was involved in a car crash last Friday.

Michael Vaughan batted very well to offset the early loss of White and his dismissal, when Jeremy Snape held a catch off his own bowling, was a significant moment. So too was the departure of Richard Harden, who helped Byas advance the score by 85. McGrath fell later in the over, his pocket neatly picked by Russell, who punished him for allowing his foot to hover over the crease by no more than a centimetre.

Harvey returned with orders to ``keep them out'' and that is what he did, twice hitting the stumps to remove Bradley Parker and, after his gallant smiting, Fellows' Yorkshire hearts were broken. Gloucestershire march on towards the first West Country final at Lord's. It will be noisy.