Cricket: Onslaught by Richards and Maynard

Glamorgan 292; Gloucestershire 84-7

AFTER years of three-day cricket on effectively four-day pitches at Pen-y-Pound, the situation was reversed dramatically here yesterday. Paradise became purgatory for batsmen with more grass left on the pitch and wickets tumbling.

Gloucestershire still need 59 with three wickets intact today to avoid following on. Seventeen wickets fell on a sunlit day with Steve Watkin, fresh from his exploits in the final Ashes Test, taking 3 for 34 to reach 82 first- class wickets in Glamorgan's golden season.

How things change. Three years ago, an aggregate of 1,641 runs at more than 100 per wicket was scored in a memorable, albeit drawn, match against Worcestershire on this ground. It was the highest for a three-day game in the Championship.

Glamorgan, in second place, need a positive result to sustain their quest for prize-money. Hitherto, lasting three days was often a minor triumph for the Welshman.

This was the backcloth, and one of scenic splendour, too, for Vivian Richards and Matthew Maynard to move into and perish in the nineties after they had added an ebullient 187 from 32 overs for Glamorgan's third wicket.

Chris Broad, a third batsman with a Test background, made 52 not out for Gloucestershire, combating the effects of the shine and hardness of the ball on a pitch assisting the seam bowlers. Richards and Maynard had battered the leather into near submission, which should have made it easier for those who followed.

Glamorgan still lost their last eight wickets for 84 runs, three in 11 balls to Tim Hancock, whose half hour of occasional medium pace brought a career best at a cost of 10 runs. Maynard, Richards and Tony Cottey were an accomplished list of victims.

Richards scored 95 from 98 balls, kicking his bat as he held it in his hand on reaching the edge of the square after being dismissed. It slipped from his grasp. This associate Welshman, having just passed 1,000 first class runs in his final season dearly wanted a hundred.

Maynard was caught off the penultimate scheduled ball before lunch, one of seven Glamorgan batsmen taken behind the wicket. David Hemp, deputising for Hugh Morris, who has a throat infection, was an exception, being bowled by the rhythmical West Indian, Courtney Walsh.