IT seems like a lifetime ago that Gloucestershire were spraying the champagne at Lord’s and celebrating their first limited overs triumph in 11 years as they limped out of the Royal London One Day Cup on Tuesday.

Despite thriving in the Specsavers County Championship Division Two and running to the quarter-finals of the T20 Blast, which will be played next Wednesday at the Brightside Ground when Gloucestershire play Durham, they have failed miserably to defend the One Day Cup crown they worked so hard to win in 2015.

Gloucestershire lost their first three matches in the tournament last month which made their defence an uphill task to begin with.

But their win on June 14 at the Brightside Ground against Hampshire by ten runs gave head coach Richard Dawson and his side some hope that they might get back into the nine-team pool race for a top four place which would qualify them for the knock-out stages.

However, even though they beat Sussex by 51 runs at Cheltenham on July 24, the damage was done on July 27 when they lost at the Kia Oval to Surrey by a whopping 165 runs, and the exit door was firmly slammed shut when Kent beat them last Sunday at Canterbury by seven wickets.

The clash against Essex on Tuesday, therefore, was meaningless for Gloucestershire other than some pride to steer them out of the bottom two.

But, while the Brightside Ground crowd waited, the 1.30pm start was delayed. As the sun came out, the covers were taken off and both teams took to the field for a 3.30pm start.

But just as Gloucestershire openers Michael Klinger and Phil Mustard were about to take guard, umpires Michael Burns and Martin Saggers took both teams back to the pavilion and the covers across both the crease and the outfield were put firmly back in place.

And, with the rain starting to pour again, even a ten over thrash at the end of a soggy day did not happen as the umpires call off proceedings just after 6.30pm.