Kirby in the wickets

Steve Kirby shot down Leicestershire to lift Gloucestershire's spirits on the second day of their LV County Championship Division Two match at Cheltenham.

Without a four-day win all season and struggling near the foot of the Division Two table, the home side were urgently in need of a pick-me-up.

Kirby obliged, returning impressive figures of 4-56 as the visitors were restricted to a below-par 201 for nine on a day when 14 wickets fell.

Gloucestershire lead by 114 runs and will sense an opportunity to force a first championship success since beating the same opponents at Grace Road almost a year ago.

They endured a miserable first week at the College Ground, thrashed by Worcestershire and beaten by Nottinghamshire in a rain-affected NatWest Pro40 match.

But festival-goers were finally given something to cheer as their seam bowlers ripped into Leicestershire.

Fully recovered from the side strain which ruled him out of earlier games at Cheltenham, skipper Jon Lewis made the initial breakthrough, locating Boeta Dippenaar's outside edge to present wicketkeeper Steve Snell with a routine catch.

Gloucestershire's dominance was then confirmed by a rush of four wickets for 27 runs in four overs.

Oliver Newby, on loan from Lancashire, claimed his first victim since arriving from Old Trafford when Paul Nixon edged to substitute fielder Will Rudge at second slip for 15.

Steve Kirby took four wickets to put Gloucs in firm control

And 68 for two quickly became 87 for four as Kirby bowled Matthew Boyce off his pads and had Jim Allenby caught behind without scoring in the space of four balls.

When HD Ackerman drove loosely at David Brown and was snaffled by Snell, Leicestershire were 95 for five and by no means sure to save the follow-on.

Only an adhesive sixth-wicket stand of 63 between Tom Smith and Josh Cobb averted that particular danger, but another flurry of wickets shortly before the close confirmed Gloucestershire's supremacy.

Kirby returned to bowl Smith and have Dillon du Preez caught in the gully, while Vikram Banerjee's slow left-arm spin accounted for Cobb and Claude Henderson, both caught behind, as Gloucestershire assumed the upper hand.

Resuming on 256 for five, Gloucestershire lost their last five wickets for just 33 runs in 20 overs as the lower-order succumbed to the second new ball.

Nightwatchman Kirby was first to go, offering a return catch to Dillon du Preez, having held out for 36 balls.

Nadeem Malik and Allenby then combined to mop up the tail as the home side's batting suffered the latest in a series of worrying collapses.

Snell faced 29 balls for one before clipping Malik to square-leg and Lewis edged the same bowler to first slip without scoring.

Gloucestershire were indebted to Chris Taylor, whose 119-ball innings ushered his team to a third batting bonus point.

Taylor hit eight fours in all before attempting to hit Allenby over the top and holing out to mid-off for 50.

It was left to Allenby to wrap up the innings, the all-rounder inducing Newby to edge to second slip to finish with an impressive haul of 4-40 from 18.1 overs.

Du Preez was even more effective, returning figures of 4-55 from 25 overs, including 11 maidens.

Having been well-placed at 228 for two on the first day, Gloucestershire's first innings went rapidly downhill once centurion Marcus North had departed, their last eight wickets falling for a meagre 87 runs in 44 overs to hand Leicestershire a way back into the game.