CRAIG Spearman and Ian Harvey were the stars as Gloucestershire kept their National League title hopes very much alive with a seven-wicket triumph over Essex in their day-night clash at Chelmsford.

The visitors, replying to what looked a testing 252-8, reached their target with seven wickets and 10 overs to spare.

Spearman scored 101 while Harvey fell just four short of his century following five sixes, four of them at the expense of off-spinner James Middlebrook, and 11 fours in his 55-ball effort.

His 96 was his personal best in the competition but the century he deserved was denied him as Ronnie Irani accepted a catch at mid on.

SCOREBOARD

Frizzell County Championship Division One, Blackpool: Kent 602-6 dec (E T Smith 203, M J Walker 150, M A Ealham 95, G O Jones 66 no), Lancashire 347-7 (M J Chilton 114, C P Schofield 66, C L Hooper 60); Grace Road: Leicestershire 320 (P A J DeFreitas 103, D I Stevens 51, Mushtaq Ahmed 5-93) & 186-5 (D I Stevens 50), Sussex 416 (P A Cottey 147, M J Prior 96, R R Montgomerie 52, P A J DeFreitas 5-55); Southgate: Warwickshire 496 (D R Brown 113, A F Giles 96, T Frost 84), Middlesex 244-8 (A F Giles 4-75).

Division Two, Riverside: Yorkshire 448 (C White 135 no, A McGrath 86, A K D Gray 60) & 103-6, Durham 327 (M A Gough 54, G J Pratt 51, G D Bridge 50, S P Kirby 4-93); The Rose Bowl: Glamorgan 437 (M P Maynard 129, A Dale 123) & 33-3, Hampshire 185 (M S Kasprowicz 5-48) & 449 (N Pothas 121, A D Mascarenhas 75, R J E Hindley 68 no, S M Katich 53, R D B Croft 5-117); New Road: Derbyshire 163 (M S Mason 5-43) & 51-5, Worcestershire 301 (S J Rhodes 81 no, Kabir Ali 68, D G Cork 4-60).

National Cricket League Division One, Chelmsford: Essex Eagles 252-8 (N Hussain 98), Gloucestershire Gladiators 255-3 (C M Spearman 101, I J Harvey 96) Gloucestershire beat Essex by 7 wkts.

Tour Match, Taunton: South Africa 326-4 dec (G C Smith 152, N D McKenzie 66 no, G Kirsten 66) & 245-4 dec (N D McKenzie 82 no, H H Dippenaar 68), Somerset 245-7 dec (M J Wood 55, M Zondeki 5-64) & 109-3 Somerset drew with South Africa; The AMP Oval: Match abandoned as a draw, rain. Surrey 173 (A Bhandari 5-54) & 39-0, India A 462-4 dec (G Gambhir 130 no, S Sriram 115, A T Rayudu 101 no, S S Das 74).