 Van der Gucht had originally played for Hampshire's Second XI during the 1997 Second XI Championship and, two years later, in the Second XI Trophy, where in the first year of the competition he guided his team to the final, despite the team losing to Kent at the climax of the competition.Van der Gucht played in the 1999 38-County Cup for Hampshire Cricket Board, and later in the season, in the first three rounds of the NatWest Trophy.Van der Gucht was a tailend batsman for the Second XI, whose persistence with the bat was not to show through on his first-class debut, though he impressed with the ball, taking three wickets in a four-day draw against a team of Zimbabweans touring the country during the year.