Liam Norwell returned career-best figures of 6-33 to post a match haul of 10-65 as Gloucestershire cruised to a nine-wicket victory in their LV= County Championship Division Two clash with Essex.
Chris Dent and Will Tavare both struck fifties as Gloucestershire romped to victory but it was Norwell's efforts with the ball that set things up at the Essex County Ground.
The 23-year-old fast bowler once again found lift to undermine the home innings as they were bowled out for 199 after resuming on 91 for four. But it was a delivery that kept low that sent Essex on the slippery slope in the morning session when he bowled James Foster without him adding to his overnight 13.
Norwell quickly followed that by finding a way through the defence of Greg Smith leaving Essex relying on Kishen Velani and Graham Napier, the last of their recognised batsmen, to try and launch a recovery.
But it never materialised. Napier had scored only four when he cut a wide delivery from Craig Miles into the hands of Dent at second slip, giving the fielder his fifth catch of the match.
Velani, however, did his best to keep the innings afloat with several well-timed drives and deflections off his legs. The 20-year-old reached his first Championship half-century from 81 balls with the help of one six among his seven boundaries before he and Adeel Malik were sent packing in the same over by David Payne.
Superb! 10 wickets for @LCNorwell24! Essex all out for 199 and lead by 113 runs. Run chase is on #GoGlospic.twitter.com/SDQH5mHNSX
— Gloucestershire CCC (@Gloscricket) May 5, 2015
Both put up simple catches to Peter Handscomb in the covers leaving Norwell to return and bring the innings to a close by bowling Jamie Porter.
It left Gloucestershire with a modest target of 114 to secure their first Championship triumph of the season, with the Essex bowlers needing to perform heroics if they were to prevent that event from happening.
But it quickly became obvious that the visitors were in no mood to surrender the initiative Norwell had given them.
Tavare and Dent made sure of that with a series of well-struck strokes either side of the wicket.
Tavare struck a sumptuous cover-drive off Porter to bring up his half-century from 57 deliveries, nine of which he struck to the boundary.
Porter was to gain some consolation when the opener turned the ball into the hands of Dan Lawrence but, by then, the visitors had put 106 on the board. In the next over, Dent also reached his second half-century of the match, coming from 58 balls, seven of which reached the boundary ropes, before he secured victory in only the 22nd over.
Gloucestershire collected 20 points from the match and Essex three.
The defeat will come as a setback to Essex who began the match in second place. And they were left reflecting on the inadequacies of their batting - not once in their four innings at Chelmsford did they manage to reach 200.
Thanks for all the tweets/messages, good to get a few wickets but most importantly a huge win for the team and great performances all round
— Liam Norwell (@LCNorwell24) May 5, 2015
Meanwhile Gloucestershire will derive much confidence form their all-round performance ahead of their next match against promotion favourites Lancashire at Emirates Old Trafford on Sunday.
Gloucestershire head coach Richard Dawson said: "All our bowlers performed exceptionally well over the three days and for a squad of young bowlers, their performance was very encouraging.
"We bowled with discipline and we were consistent in the way we were hitting our lengths. We've been asking for improvements from our bowlers and they've done it.
"But it was the overall team performance which has given me a lot of satisfaction. Chris Dent batted exceptionally well in both innings and Pete Handscomb's first-innings score and his partnership with David Payne helped give us what was an important first-innings lead.
"We've also fielded better than we have done recently so I can't fault the lads for their performance."
Essex head coach Paul Grayson added: "We've played some outstanding four-day cricket over the last 12 games or so and at some stage, we were bound to lose a game.
"In this game after the first hour, Gloucestershire have been the better side. We beat Kent here, we played well against Surrey last week and maybe this defeat is a kick up the backside for us. We won't beat ourselves up and we'll learn from what's happened in this game."