Cottey cuts losses

Leicestershire 536 and 141-3 Glamorgan 433

The way Tony Cottey and Ottis Gibson resumed Glamorgan's first innings yesterday morning, you would not have thought the home side were still 254 runs adrift of the follow-on target of 387 - although,from the rain that fell in Swansea overnight, you would have been surprised to find the game starting on time at all. But the blustery wind that had the white horses racing across Swansea Bay quickly dried the ground and also kept the rain clouds on the far side of the Bristol Channel.

By tea, Glamorgan had sailed into safe waters thanks to a splendid maiden double-century from Cottey and what deserved to be a first hundred for the county for Gibson. Instead, the West Indian all-rounder, whose 97 off 168 balls contained 14 fours, had to be content with his share of a Glamorgan seventh-wicket record of 211. Made off 59 overs, it consigned to the bins of history Wilf Wooller and Willy Jones's unbroken 195 against Lancashire in 1947.

Leicestershire have to win here to leap-frog over Surrey at the top of the County Championship table. If they fail to do so, they really have only themselves to blame. On Friday they had reduced Glamorgan to 133 for six, but their bowling was disappointingly ragged for a side so high in the table. Apart from Phil Simmons, their acting captain, whose figures of five for 62 from 22.3 overs were a fair reflection of his effort and accuracy, the rest struggled to put the ball in the same place twice.

Leicestershire's catching was equally unreliable, with Gibson, Cottey and Robert Croft all given lives before the follow-on was avoided. Gibson's was a difficult one to the wicketkeeper, cutting at Matthew Brimson's left-arm spin when he was 34, but Simmons' miss at slip, when Cottey was 115, came from a regulation edge. It was a rare lapse of concentration from both the batsman and the fielder and would have sent poor Brimson to lunch feeling decidedly disgruntled. Had either of those chances been held, Glamorgan rather than Leicestershire would have been batting again yesterday evening.

Nothing, however, can detract from the entertainment Cottey and Gibson provided in the morning. They both went off like firecrackers, punishing everything loose - and they were not short of options. The first five overs produced 37 runs, 32 of them in boundaries, and forced Simmons to remove Gordon Parsons and David Millns from the attack. Not that this changed anything. The batting milestones came and went rapidly - sombre reminders to Leicestershire of time slipping away.

Gibson's 50 came first, followed immediately by the century partnership and then Cottey's fourth hundred of the season, made off 160 balls and containing 19 fours. When he had reached 90, Cottey also became the fourth Glamorgan player this summer to reach 1,000 runs. Some days he bats like a pocket battleship, but yesterday's 203, made in just under six hours, with 32 fours and a six in 333 balls, was an innings of character and composure.

Leicestershire, restricted to a lead of 103, added another 141 before the close. Gregor MacMillan hit a punishing 31, including a straight six off Darren Thomas, after Darren Maddy had played on to Thomas in the second over. However, the off-spin of Croft and Cottey subsequently kept Leicestershire in check and by the end the visitors were left to rue a day of missed chances.