DEWSBURY-BORN Mike Smith once again threw a spanner in the works of his native county as Yorkshire Phoenix crashed by 61 runs to Gloucestershire Glad-iators at Bristol.

The left-arm medium pacer showed far greater control than any of the Yorkshire fast bowlers had done earlier on and his dismissal of the first three in the batting order during nine consecutive overs with the new ball at a cost of only 20 runs meant that Gloucestershire's 211 never came under any serious threat.

Smith, who claimed a hat-trick in the match between the sides at Gloucester in 1998, trapped Gary Fellows lbw with the first ball of the innings.

He then followed up with the wickets of Michael Vaughan and Richard Blakey, Vaughan being smartly stumped by Jack Russell who then held a catch to end a knock of 27 from Blakey.

Darren Lehmann, David Byas and Gavin Hamilton all departed after settling in well and with none of Gloucestershire's bowlers giving much away Yorkshire got hopelessly behind the required rate, their last wicket going down with three overs remaining.

Happy to win the toss and bat first on a used pitch, Gloucestershire never really looked back after Rob Cunliffe and Kim Barnett made a flying start against careless use of the new ball by Matthew Hoggard, who gave away 22 in two overs before being removed from the attack.

The openers dashed up 47 in 11 overs before Barnett was bowled by Craig White but Yorkshire suffered further pain from Australian Ian Harvey who raced to 52 off 45 balls with eight powerful boundaries.

In an attempt to stem Gloucestershire's advance, Byas called upon eight bowlers and it was the last who proved the most successful, Vaughan claiming career-best figures of four for 27 in 5.5 overs with his off-spinners.

It was Vaughan who had Harvey stumped by Blakey to make it 169 for five and he and White sliced their way through the second half of the batting to keep Gloucestershire's final score down to a reasonable level.

SCOREBOARD

Gloucestershire Gladiators v Yorkshire Phoenix at Bristol

Gloucestershire Gladiators (4pts) beat Yorkshire Phoenix (0pts) by 51 runs

Yorkshire Phoenix Innings

Fellows lbw b Smith 0

Vaughan st Russell b Smith 6

Blakey c Russell b Smith 27

Lehmann c Cunliffe b Cawdron 22

Byas b Harvey 38

White c Taylor b Cawdron 11

Hamilton b Averis 31

Middlebrook b Harvey 0

Silverwood c Harvey b Averis 4

Sidebottom st Russell b Averis 3

Hoggard not out 1

Extras b1 lb5 w11 17

Total (42 overs) 160

Fall: 1-0 2-38 3-41 4-76 5-106 6-135 7-135 8-148 9-159

Bowling: Smith 9-2-20-3 Harvey 7-1-24-2 Averis 8-0-26-3 Cawdron 9-1-37-2 Snape 9-0-47-0

Gloucestershire Gladiators Innings

Cunliffe c Blakey b Hamilton 34

Barnett b White 18

Russell c Blakey b Hoggard 37

Windows c Byas b Hamilton 10

Harvey st Blakey b Vaughan 52

Taylor c Fellows b Vaughan 15

Snape c Byas b Vaughan 11

Williams c Vaughan b White 2

Cawdron b White 0

Averis b Vaughan 6

Smith not out 3

Extras lb6 w15 nb2 23

Total (44.5 overs) 211

Fall: 1-47 2-73 3-90 4-167 5-169 6-197 7-200 8-201 9-208

Bowling: Silverwood 4-0-13-0 Hoggard 4-0-38-1 Sidebottom 5-0-17-0 White 7-0-30-3 Hamilton 7-0-29-2 Middlebrook 9-0-29-0 Lehmann 3-0-22-0 Vaughan 5.5-1-27-4

Umpires: N A Mallender and G Sharp