Date-stamped : 26 Jun96 - 22:16 County Championship 1996 Warwickshire v Kent Edgbaston, Birmingham 20, 21, 22 June 1996 ====> REPORT Day 1, 20 June 1996 Warwickshire find Ealham unplayable By Geoffrey Dean at Edgbaston BATTING was far from easy at Edgbaston yesterday on a well grassed pitch, as green as a cucumber. The bounce was inconsistent and there was also prodigious side- ways movement. When Kent bowled, Mark Ealham`s out swingers were unplayable, and his spell of 6-4-5-3 does not bode well for Warwickshire`s chances. An engrossing day had begun with Shaun Pollock and Tim Munton, in his first championship match this season, bowling superbly with the new ball. Pollock`s pace did for Trevor Ward, who was late on a ball that he edged onto off stump. Nigel Llong played and missed so many times that his demise ap- peared only a matter of time. Having been dropped off Mun- ton at second slip, he was then brilliantly held at third by Dougie Brown. Carl Hooper was immediately hit painfully on the elbow by a vi- cious lifter from Pollock. He was forced to retire hurt, and when he came back at 151 for five, was not his normal self. He missed a straight, full-length ball from Brown. Matthew Fleming played a key part in seeing Kent to what looks a good score on this pitch. Summoning patience to a naturally fraught disposition, he mostly batted like a true opener, not a converted one. For the first 80 minutes of his innings, he did not score a single run on the off- side as Warwickshire gave him no width and nothing to drive. He showed, however, what an accomplished puller he is, seizing instantly on anything remotely short to pull eight of his 10 boundaries, two of which sailed over the mid-wicket fence. Graeme Welch was severely punished. But Fleming, dropped twice in the slips when 39 and 60, did not build on his good fortune. He stood aghast when an upper cut off Pollock flew straight to third man. Ealham was also caught in exactly the same position. All four Warwickshire seamers regularly extracted trampoline bounce - none more so than Brown, who took five wickets for the first time in an innings. He began by having Graham Cowdrey caught behind trying to cut one that bounced and completed a triumvirate of lbws when both Steve Marsh and Min Patel played across straight ones. As the ball got older and the bowlers tired, notably Pollock (whose heavy workload will not please Ali Bacher), batting became easier. Martin McCague, given width, carved 36 crucial runs. The unevenness of the pitch was underlined when Andy Moles was lbw to a scuttling off-cutter. But the three fine deliveries from Ealham that earned his wickets owed nothing to the pitch. Day 2, 21 June 1996 Gloucs flounder By Doug Ibbotson Trent Bridge Second day of four: Gloucestershire (190 & 32-0) trail Not- tinghamshire (460) by 238 runs THERE is mounting speculation that Cheltenham and Gloucester, Bristol and the West, once renowned for robust county cricket, will henceforth be associated exclusively with building so- cieties. Shareholders in Gloucesteshire`s sporting heritage cer- tainly found themselves floundering in a bare market at Trent Bridge yesterday. After Nottinghamshire`s businesslike accumulation of 460 runs, Gloucestershire`s response was at times irresolute and ir- responsible as they condemned themselves to follow on 270 behind. Coming a week after a three-day defeat by Sussex at Bristol, a searching inquest seems imminent. Chris Cairns, having completed a dashing century with 11 fours and three sixes in the morning, removed Tony Wright and Nick Trainor in the first three overs of his hostile opening spell and Lyndsay Walker`s record-equalling performance behind the stumps for Notts - six wickets in the innings - exacer- bated Gloucestershire`s embarrassment as they slumped to 125 for seven. At this point Mike Smith, with a career-best 55 not out, and Jonathan Lewis bucked the trend with a determined partnership of 61, but the shipt