Hampshire's second eleven cricketer's have twice failed to take control of their evenly-poised match with Gloucestershire after the first day's play at Bournemouth.

They had the visitor's wobbling at 169-8 but were unfortunate to come across some stoic lower-order batting, buoyed by a fair slice of luck, meaning Gloucester reached 241.

Then Hampshire looked in a good position in reply at 53-0, but let the position slip to 89-3 at the close.

Visiting Gloucestershire got themselves into a good position at lunch, Ian Fisher hitting 84 after James Bruce and James Hibberd had made early breakthroughs.

However, 155-4 slipped to 169-8 thanks to an excellent spell of bowling from Lawrence Prittipaul and Chaka Hodge.

Prittipaul was at his exuberant best, swinging the ball both ways, and beating the bat with regularity, picking up 4-33 as he ran through the middle order.

He was well supported by Hodge - an off-spinner from Anguila who has represented West Indies A - as he extracted some turn and bounce and kept the pressure on, grabbing 3-32.

Hampshire felt aggrieved at the negative decision over what looked a genuine catch at third slip, which was turned down, and were also unlucky on a number of occasions as the ball just evaded fielders' hands.

They got off to a good start in reply though, with Dominic Clapp (25) and James Hamblin (32) both hitting the ball well from the off. The pair chalked up their fifty partnership, but both would have been disappointed to be caught in the covers.

Greg Lamb left one that jagged back onto off-stump soon after, but Prittipaul (27no) and Academy debutant Kevin LaTouf (7no) saw their side to the end of play without further damage.