Worcestershire Seconds had to work hard for their wickets on the opening day of the four-day friendly encounter with their Gloucestershire counterparts at Cheltenham College.
The home side elected to bat in what has become an annual fixture between the two counties and reached 336-5 off 96 overs by the close.
A century from Graeme van Buuren and major contributions from Miles Hammond and Ben Charlesworth were the cornerstone of the Gloucestershire innings.
Worcestershire stuck gamely to their task and enjoyed a purple spell in mid innings when they claimed three wickets for 23 runs.
Spinners Ben Twohig and George Rhodes sent down 43 overs between them and kept a tight rein on the scoring rate along with the medium pacers of Zain Ul-Hassan.
Triallists Grant Thornton and Tristan Blackledge shared the new ball and the former made the first breakthrough with 49 on the board.
Hammond and van Buuren then joined forces and added 124 in 29 overs.
Ul-Hassan broke the stand when dismissing Hammond for 86 off 134 balls with 12 boundaries.
Van Buuren needed 63 balls to reach his half century but needed only another 51 balls to get to three figures with one six and 14 fours.
But on 103, and after 62 with Kieran Noema-Barnett, he was bowled by Twohig for 103.
Twohig made it two wickets in two overs by getting rid of Noema-Barnett (19) and then Rhodes got in on the act by accounting for Jordan Garrett (7) at 258-5.
But that was Worcestershire’s last success of the day as Charlesworth (53 not out) and George Drissell (31 not out) added an unbroken 78.
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GLOUCESTERSHIRE – FIRST INNINGS
Willows b Thornton 17
Hammond c Parker-Cole b Ul-Hassan 86
Van Buuren b Twohig 103
Noema-Barnett c Imtiaz b Twohig 19
Garrett c Dell b Rhodes 7
Charlesworth not out 53
Drissell not out 31
Extras 20
Total (for 5 wickets) 336
FOW: 49, 173, 235, 236, 258
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BOWLING
Thornton 18-2-37-0
Blackledge 9-0-37-0
Parker-Cole 11-2-48-0
Ul-Hassan 15-3-47-1
Twohig 26-7-82-2
Rhodes 17-5-38-1
