Toby Roland-Jones claimed four wickets to round off Middlesex’s County Championship campaign in winning fashion as they ground down Gloucestershire on the final day at Lord’s.
The 37-year-old seamer finished with 4-57, ending the campaign as Division Two’s second highest wicket-taker behind Derbyshire’s Luis Reece to dismiss the visitors for 281 in their second innings, despite Ollie Price’s knock of 61.
Former Gloucestershire duo Zafar Gohar and Ryan Higgins backed up Roland-Jones with three and two wickets apiece as the Seaxes sealed an innings victory with 22 overs unused.
The result meant Middlesex finished fourth in the final table, 11 points short of the promotion places, with Gloucestershire in sixth.
Gloucestershire began the final day with nine wickets standing and rarely looked in danger of losing any more during the opening hour and a half where the ball swung, but not enough to cause genuine problems for Price and Joe Phillips.
Having dispatched Roland-Jones for two early boundaries and survived Noah Cornwell’s appeal for a catch down the leg-side, Price settled into the groove, advancing to his half-century from 91 balls.
It was teenage seamer Sebastian Morgan who eventually made the breakthrough, sending down three tight overs before switching to the Pavilion End and gaining immediate reward as he tempted Phillips to drive to gully.
Morgan might also have removed Miles Hammond, who edged just short of second slip, but the left-hander quickly gained rhythm with a series of fours as he and Price guided their side through to lunch.
However, Price’s return to the crease after the interval lasted one ball – a Roland-Jones delivery that kept low, nipped back and clattered into his off stump and, when James Bracey glanced Higgins behind without scoring, Gloucestershire were suddenly on the back foot again.
Having escaped when Morgan, leaping to his right at gully, could not cling onto a difficult chance, Hammond eventually perished to a similar stroke off Higgins to leave the visitors five down.
Graeme van Buuren, having taken 17 balls to get off the mark, sprang to life with a trio of boundaries off Roland-Jones and pounced on anything wide outside off stump as he and Jack Taylor added 49.
Gohar came on to dismiss his former county captain for 46, with Ben Geddes plunging forward at short leg to take a bat-pad catch, but the Taylor brothers steered their side into the final session.
Middlesex’s hopes were lifted again by the new ball, which brought Roland-Jones the wickets of Matt Taylor – and then his elder brother, one short of his half-century – both snapped up at second slip.
With Ajeet Singh Dale falling to Gohar, there was still time for Marchant de Lange to launch a brief, defiant counter-attack against the spinner, hitting 14 from three deliveries before he was caught behind.
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