Former Gloucestershire player Jackson Thompson hit a century and then took six wickets to send Rockhampton to a narrow defeat at Cheltenham.

Rockhampton opted to bowl first and opening bowlers Will Cartlidge and Michael Beard beat the bat on numerous occasions.

Beard in particular was unplayable at times and the pressure told as Gallagher ran himself out for a duck in the eighth over with a direct hit from Will Tyler.

This brought star player Jackson Thompson to the crease and he wasted little time in setting about his task with powerful straight hitting and pull shots.

Sam Nichols and Matt Belbin in particular were on the receiving end of some mighty blows, although Belbin did remove the dangerous Wade Ridsdale for 20.

Skipper James Hancox was managing to keep a check on the scoring rate from the other end, and trapped county second-teamer Alex Spencer lbw.

Thompson reached his century in the 39th over, but shortly after was out lbw to Jack Spence (1-39).

Late hitting from George Pearson took Cheltenham past 200, before he was bowled by Hancox (2-54) in the penultimate over.

Rockhampton again started well with Matt Tyler and Beard putting on 50 with relative ease before Thompson dismissed Tyler for 28.

Rowan Cartlidge (23) played fluently but a Thompson hat-trick resulted in the middle order being ripped out, as Will Tyler and Simon Hore failed to trouble the scorers.

Some powerful hitting from Sam Phelps (23) and Matt Belbin (28) kept Rockhampton in the game, but when Beard (45) was dismissed Cheltenham seemed assured of victory.

Spence got Rockhampton past 200, before Ben Gannon took his first wicket.

Hancox (18) and Nichols (13*) got Rockhampton to within eight runs and an unlikely victory looked on the cards until Thompson got the final wicket with the first ball of the 50th over.