Cricket: Glamorgan recover from scorching: Walsh's welter of clean hitting in vain: Michael Austin reports from Abergavenny

Glamorgan 292 and 297; Gloucester 158 and 349. Glamorgan win by 82 runs

RARELY does such a shortened day encapsulate the captivating, nip-and- tuck of a much longer one. Glamorgan duly triumphed yesterday to retain second place behind Middlesex but Gloucestershire, rooted to the bottom, were far from overshadowed.

In shimmering heat, Glamorgan were the scorched ones, lacking Steve Barwick with a mouth abscess and Roland Lefebvre, unable to bowl until after the scheduled tea interval.

Courtney Walsh, the West Indies Test bowler, played a captain's innings with a difference, of cool and calculated clean hitting. He made 57 from 52 balls with four sixes and five fours as Gloucestershire plundered 109 for their last two wickets.

It contrasted with the previous five tumbling in 33 minutes for one run. Walsh ventured a few strokes which are in the manual and many others delightfully improvised.

Once Dean Hodgson had dragged on an intended hook from Adrian Dale, however, Gloucestershire lost their realistic chance of making 432.

Dale bowls at a gentle pace, but moves it, thrives on errors and unseated Gloucestershire with a second wicket for none in 11 balls when clipping Mark Alleyne's off stump.

Robert Croft, the off-spinner, took 3 for 0 in two overs before Walsh damaged figures which were still a commendable 4 for 115 from 51 overs, with the assistance of two catches by Gary Butcher, aged 18, son of Alan, the former Glamorgan captain and a substitute for the injured Vivian Richards.

Steve Watkin's four-wicket return lifted his season's total to 86 with the possibility of becoming the first Glamorgan bowler to take 100 since Don Shepherd in 1960.

Glamorgan's collective achievement is an eighth Championship win, their best performance for 23 years since they scored nine victories under the captaincy of Tony Lewis.