Date-stamped : 25 May97 - 06:15 Ilott has leaders in trouble By Clive Ellis at Gloucester Second day of four: Gloucs 84-7 v Essex LIFE can be tough at the top. Championship leaders Gloucestershire spent a thumb-twiddling day-and-a-half waiting for the Archdeacon Meadow ground to dry sufficiently for play to start then plunged into immediate trouble against Essex`s sharply focused attack. Mark Ilott took two wickets in three balls in his first spell, and also struck with the first two balls of his second spell to vindicate Paul Prichard`s decision to put Gloucestershire in. It was always predicted that the King`s School pitch would turn, but it was the Essex seamers who obtained extravagant movement to inflict all the damage. Opener Nick Trainor was Ilott`s first victim, edging into his pads in the seventh over to give Danny Law a neat catch at silly mid-off. More inward movement brought Ilott the wicket of Rob Cunliffe two balls later, comprehensively bowled, before Tony Wright and Monte Lynch attempted to relaunch the innings. However, Lynch, wafting ineffectually outside offstump, offered Graham Gooch catching practice at second slip, then Gooch moved smartly away to his right to accept a far harder low chance which ended 100 minutes of brave resistence by Wright and brought Ronnie Irani his second wicket. Ilott returned near the end to remove Mark Alleyne and Richard Davis, finishing with figures of four for 17 in 10 overs, while Shaun Young was lbw to the final ball of the day from Ashley Cowan. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/) Russell rewrites script to revive hopes of victory By Clive Ellis at Gloucester Third day of four: Essex (136-4) trail Gloucestershire (290) by 154 runs JACK RUSSELL played the urbane author at the launch of his autobiography on Tuesday, but he was back to his bread-and-butter existence yesterday. In book terms the chapter might be entitled "How I Drive the Opposition Mad". Russell`s unbeaten 91, an innings of shifting moods appropriate to the changing complexion of the game, was the pivotal contribution to a day which began well for Gloucestershire and just got better and better until Stuart Law introduced the first note of Essex defiance with a classy, undefeated 60. Broken down into individual parts, Gloucestershire still look like something less than potential championship winners, but the leaders have revealed enormous qualities of resilience under the quietly inspiring leadership of Mark Alleyne this season and have half a chance today of extracting an improbable victory from a game reduced to 2.5 days by rain. At the start of the day, with Gloucestershire teetering on 84 for seven, the smart money would have been on Essex in expectation of conditions less blatantly helpful to seam bowling. They certainly were, but batting was still far from simple and it was Gloucestershire`s good fortune that the two players entrusted with rebuilding the innings were Russell and Tim Hancock. Both treated playing-and-missing as an occupational hazard. Russell threatened early belligerence, then became more watchful as Hancock adopted the more aggressive role. He speared Mark Ilott through the slip region for boundaries off successive balls and the left-armer`s overnight figures of four for 17 drifted to four for 82. Small wonder that he nominates Russell as the player to whom he least likes to bowl. Russell and Hancock were still together at lunch and afterwards Essex allowed the game to drift away from them completely. Hancock completed his fifty off 102 balls and on 57 he was inexplicably dropped by Paul Prichard in the gully. The miss was none too costly as Hancock flicked Ashley Cowan to Paul Grayson at midwicket to end the stand of 108 with Russell, but Cowan dropped Russell in the slips when he had made 41 and the suffering endured for Essex in the shape of an enterprising 98-run partnership for the ninth wicket between Russell and Martyn Ball. Russell, having reached a ninth half-century in his last 11 championship innings off 145 balls, broadened his range. The familiar cuts and pulls were complemented by a flowing boundary through extra cover as Russell went down the pitch to Danny Law. It was Law who denied Russell the chance of his hundred, dismissing Martyn Ball and Mike Smith with successive balls. Then Smith did his best to convince England selector Graham Gooch that he should come into consideration for the forthcoming Test series with a probing new-ball spell. He claimed the wickets of Nasser Hussain and Gooch though the lbw decision did not seem to impress the great man and Essex were shakily placed at 72 for four before Stuart Law unleashed some glorious off-side strokes to remove the possibility of Essex following on. This was Law`s fourth successive score of 50 or more, including one hundred. His half-century here arrived off 77 balls and Paul Grayson offered risk-free support in an unbroken fifth-wicket stand of 64 which gave Essex some optimism to take into the final day. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/) Gloucester status in danger By Clive Ellis at Gloucester Gloucester drew with Essex THE sun finally came out at the picturesque Archdeacon Meadow ground yesterday. Off the field there were only clouds and recriminations as the game drifted to a mundane draw, which was enough to preserve Gloucestershire`s position at the top. Essex were under fire for failing to respond to negotiations - designed, apparently, to contrive a target of 250, but the wounds run deeper, and leave Gloucester ever more vulnerable as a championship venue. One critical plank of Essex`s argument would be that if there had been minimum covering at the ground the game could have started on time on Wednesday. As it was the pitch got wet, and the surrounds were so soggy that play finally began at 4pm on the second day. The lack of adequate covering will be mentioned prominently in the umpires` report, and Gloucester, a less- attractive proposition for corporate sponsorship than Cheltenham, could lose the fixture. Essex stood accused and yet this was not a pitch on which any side, even one packed with fast-scoring batsmen, like Essex, would fancy a run chase. Always slow, batting was a lottery when Gloucestershire set out on Thursday, and even with the moisture drawn out by yesterday`s sunshine, it was hardly conducive to strokeplay. Stuart Law, who kept Essex afloat on Friday, played with controlled freedom, and nothing seemed more inevitable than a second successive hundred until he tried to loft slow left-armer Richard Davis into the outfield and miscued. The audible expletive which accompanied the Australian`s return to the pavilion said everything about his annoyance at terminating an innings of 84, replete with 16 boundaries of high pedigree. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/) Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com)