Wickets continued to tumble in the afternoon session at the County Ground as Gloucestershire struggled against the Essex seamers on the opening day of the LV County Championship match.

Resuming on 68-4, the home side had progressed to 93 when James Franklin, on 21, played a loose shot at a wide ball from David Masters and gave wicketkeeper James Foster his fourth catch.

Gloucestershire CCC batsman Hamish Marshall did his best to hold the innings together and reached a battling half-century off 116 balls, with four fours.

He lost another partner with the total on 128 as Steve Snell, having made 18, flashed at a ball from Ryan ten Doeschate and became another victim for Foster.

Marshall had moved to 64 when he attempted to play a full length delivery from ten Doeschate through the leg-side and was lbw falling across his stumps. It was 141-7 and Gloucestershire's hopes of even one batting bonus point looked to have evaporated.

Their position worsened when ten Doeschate struck twice more in the space of three balls. Jon Lewis had made only two when driving a catch to Mark Pettini at extra cover.

Then Vikram Banerjee departed for a duck as his stumps were scattered by ten Doeschate, who finished with 5-62 from his 18 overs.

It was left to Chris Wright to wrap up the Gloucestershire innings at just before 4pm, trapping Ian Saxelby lbw for 10. The home side had been bowled out in just 64.3 overs.

Masters claimed 3-16 from 16 overs, while Wright finished with 2-38 from 15.3 overs. The Essex seamers had exploited a bowler-friendly pitch, but several Gloucestershire batsmen had cause to rue poor shots.