Craig Spearman revelled in a one-man show at Cheltenham yesterday to fashion a lead of 207 for Gloucestershire in their Frizzell County Championship Division Two clash with Glam-organ.

The former Kiwi opener blasted his way to an undefeated 125 as Gloucestershire moved onto 184-5 in their second innings.

The next highest scoring Gloucestershire batsman was number seven Ian Fisher, who was 19 not out at the close having made an undefeated 79 first time round.

Glamorgan's Matthew Maynard had earlier registered his first century in any competition this season as he went on to complete a majestic 140 which enabled his side to move to within 23 runs of their opponents.

Chasing Gloucestershire's first-innings total of 438 Glamorgan were all out for 415 after 104.4 overs.

Looking to extend a lead considerably less than they would have bargained for, Gloucestershire lost their first wicket with just seven on the board, Tim Hancock (6) top-edging an attempted hook off Simon Jones behind to keeper Mark Wallace.

Mike Kasprowicz then took two in as many balls to oust first-innings centurion Chris Taylor for 12, who edged behind, and Matt Windows, lbw for a duck.

That left Gloucestershire on 61-3, but Spearman then clicked into a higher gear, smashing Dean Cosker over deep midwicket for six and carving out 16 fours to keep the scorers busy.

Wickets continued to tumble at the other end, however. Darren Thomas yorked Alex Gidman for nine to leave Gloucestershire on 109-4 and in the next over Robert Croft trapped Jack Russell for a duck.

That left the hosts on 114-5 before Spearman and Fisher lifted their side onto 184 from 59 overs at the close.

Former England batsman Maynard's highest first class score so far this summer had been 90 against Middlesex at Lord's, but despite his poor form his 140 was the 38th century of his championship career.

Resuming on 48 with the Welshmen on 204-4 overnight, much rested on Maynard's shoulders if Glamorgan were to gain parity after Gloucestershire had posted a daunting first-innings total of 438.

But Maynard was up for the challenge, displaying a variety of strokeplay and crashing boundaries to all areas of the field off every member of the home attack.

Maynard was not the first to fall. Wicketkeeper Wallace had played a full part in the 163-run fifth-wicket partnership, striking 12 fours of his own and making his way to 69 before he dollied one back to Fisher for a caught and bowled to leave Glamorgan on 317-5.

Maynard went nearly 10 overs later in similar fashion, caught and bowled by Smith. He had faced 166 balls and carved out 19 fours.

Maynard's exit left Glamorgan on 356-6, but first Croft (21), then a quickfire 25 from Kasprowicz and two fours from last man Jones helped take the visitors onto 415 all out 23 runs behind Gloucestershire's first-innings total.