Cricket: Slowly does it as Holloway sets up Somerset win

Gloucestershire 355 and 204, Somerset 396 and 164-5 Somerset win by 5 wickets

PIRAN HOLLOWAY, a gritty Cornish wicket-keeper who had to leave Warwickshire and change his job description to batsman to get a regular place in Taun- ton, stonewalled Somerset to a tense and memorable victory in the County Championship, spending 72 overs on his 58 runs, but giving a shaky order a spine of Dartmoor rock.

Seeking 164, Somerset collapsed to 62 for 4 while the opener Holloway took three singles in his first 47 deliveries and batted for four-and- a-half hours

Mark Alleyne had been hoping for another 50 to 60 runs from his remaining four wickets yesterday when Gloucestershire resumed with a lead of 146. But three wickets crashed in four overs, stifling those hopes.

The major loss was the last specialist batsman, Tony Wright, caught at slip, but thinking the ball had brushed the pad. Neither Martyn Ball nor Jonathan Lewis are adhesive batsmen; they are happier hitting the ball and Lewis, aiming to carve Rose, fell at gully.

Ball, after a commendable 45, was another victim of the slips, giving Andy Caddick his 80th wicket of the summer, at an average of 22. He may yet get a ticket for Australia.

So Somerset were facing a target of 164 with the pitch showing only a little variation in the bounce after five days' wear (including Tuesday's Axa League game).

If bells had rung and bunting appeared in the Gloucester dressing-room in the next half hour it would have reflected the abrupt change of mood. In the fifth over Peter Bowler was trapped by Courtney Walsh; two balls later Marcus Trescothick suffered the same fate and in the next over Gloucestershire were all but dancing as Gregor Kennis was leg before to Mike Smith: 21 for 3.

After that it was uphill. Keith Parsons and Holloway added 41, in 17 overs. Holloway, on 30, offered a sharp chance to slip off Ball just before lunch, Alleyne compensating by catching a rocket to dismiss Parsons.

Burns and Holloway ground out another 50 in 26 overs and at 112 for 5 they seemed likely to see Somerset home when Burns tried to lift Ball to the mid-wicket boundary and holed out. Crisis again.

Back came Walsh for one last burst, but Holloway found another stalwart in Rob Turner. Together they inched their way to a win that ends the West's hopes of the title.