The balcony of the Bristol Pavilion is the best place to pick up this week. ‘Gravel Grandee’ Roger Cullimore had emerged from winter hibernation and watched with me. The two of us, now benign elder statesmen, saw scenes we had never previously seen at a cricket match.

Flare boxes sent flames high in the air whenever a six was hit. Copious quantities of beer and burgers were consumed, while a tiresome Mexican wave constantly swept round the ground.

In the middle of the hullabaloo, Gloucestershire were playing Somerset in the T20 Blast.

Roger and I may not have liked all we saw but we were wise enough to know what really mattered, the balance sheet! Takings were likely to exceed £100,000, easily a club record. Put another way that is the combined salaries of three good cricketers.

T20 fixtures, played under the fine floodlights at Bristol, mean big pay days but room must be left for the county championship. Getting the balance right will be a real problem for the administrators.

By the way, Gloucestershire won! They ultimately made hard work of it but looked the better side throughout. Somerset have brought in three ageing and expensive itinerant T20 specialists – Yasir Arafat, Mahela Jayawardene and self-styled champion six-hitter Chris Gayle.

Gayle does not run, either at the wicket or in the field. He ambles for singles but relies on hitting boundaries for most of his runs. His contribution at Bristol was a brisk 40 but it must be mentioned that young left arm bowler Matt Taylor bowled a maiden to him.

The win ended a fine week for Gloucestershire, especially captain ‘Maxie’ Klinger. Not only did he catch Gayle off a skier he led our innings with another fine score (60). He had scored 166 not out in the marvellous match against Hampshire (RL 50-over Cup) and 77 in the T20 demolition of Essex.

These last two matches were on Sky TV but far too many of you were probably watching football.

In that case you missed a revived Gloucestershire side playing with all their early-season zeal.

This side has been re-adjusted and an extra bowler included. This gives the captain more options and he uses them well. Tom Smith is back to form and Benny Howell remains outstanding.

With Chris Dent in masterful form again our county looks very strong.

Opposition players are becoming very frustrated. West Indian fast bowler Tino Best, trying his heart out for Hampshire, appealed loudly for lbw. He span around, “Howzat” he roared. The umpire calmly signalled a wide. Tough luck Tino but full marks for trying.