Harvey hurries Middlesex into quick submission

Gloucestershire 400-3 dec v Middlesex 222 and 119 Gloucestershire win by inns and 59

Middlesex certainly made up for lost time here yesterday. The weather had robbed this vital Second Division match of almost a day-and-a-half's play, but that did not prevent an abysmal batting performance which saw them slump to a second successive defeat in spectacular fashion.

They lost 16 wickets at a speed which would have won gold in Edmonton. If the Middlesex first-innings collapse ­ they lost their last half-dozen wickets for a paltry 68 runs ­ resembled a rollover, their second stab was just as much of a lottery and they slunk off, tails between legs, with more than a dozen overs remaining, having struggled to their lowest score of the summer.

Much of the damage was done by Gloucestershire's Australian all-rounder Ian Harvey. He did not bowl in the first innings because, apparently, he was in the side purely as a batsman; that theory went out the window after the Victorian came on in the 10th over and in two spells reduced the Middlesex innings to a mess, picking up four wickets for a meagre 20 runs.

He had the batsmen ducking and diving with some lethal short-pitched bowling, the ball never quite getting high enough to be classed as a bouncer, but still rearing just short of a length to leave the batsmen in doubt. It was one such ball that forced Ben Hutton out of the action after he was struck on the hand first delivery. And when he returned towards the end of the Middlesex mishmash a similar ball from Mark Alleyne had him fending off to Kim Barnett at short leg.

If it had not been for a stand of 80 between rookie David Alleyne and opener Robin Weston, the Middlesex plight would have been even more dire. Alleyne's fourth first- class innings produced a career-best 44, but he will take no consolation from that fact, nor from the cross-batted slog which saw him caught by his namesake, the Gloucestershire captain.

The follow-on had been enforced after James Averis claimed his first five-wicket haul for Gloucestershire ­ a personal-best 5 for 52 ­ and only the second of his career.

At one point Averis was on a hat-trick, dismissing Stephen Fleming with the last ball of one over and claiming Chad Keegan with the first of his next. All five of his wickets came in 10.3 overs, a spell which cost 27 runs.

Alleyne is a shrewd captain and is ever ready to spring the odd surprise on the opposition. And even before the introduction of Harvey, Alleyne pulled a stunt which brought its reward. He had Martyn Ball opening the bowling with Alastair Brassington, who quickly accounted for Andrew Strauss. In Ball's third over, Owais Shah drove loosely and loftily to mid-off, where Averis launched himself to his right and took a stunning one-handed catch.

The subsequent departures of Fleming and Paul Weekes brought David Alleyne out to join Weston for the fifth wicket, and when they were parted within an over of each other it opened the way for a procession of unhappy batsmen trudging to and fro in a shambolic afternoon.