Having secured maximum bowling points, and a first innings advantage of 86, Nottinghamshire reached 88-2 second time around, on the third day of their LV= County Championship match against Worcestershire at New Road.

Earlier, Harry Gurney picked up three of the four wickets to fall, ending with figures of 4-40, with Andre Adams getting the other to claim yet another 5-wicket haul on 5-62, as the home side were eventually dismissed for 157.

For Gurney it was a bit of a relief to get some wickets after drawing a blank on his debut against Somerset last week. “Conditions were slightly more favourable here but it was nice to get amongst the wickets and to wrap up their innings as quickly as we did.”

The left-armer produced the ball of the day to dismiss James Cameron, to a catch at the wicket, “It was one of those that you try and repeat over and over again until they hit one and I was fortunate that eventually he nicked it. I just enjoyed my spell bowling with Andre – it was a real pleasure to bowl in tandem with someone of his quality, someone who just keeps the pressure on every ball.”

Resuming on 72-6 after a half-hour delay, Worcestershire began the morning looking to acquire a further 22 runs to avoid the follow-on, with Cameron and Aneesh Kapil together at the crease.

A quiet hour of nudging and nurdling guided Worcester past the follow-on target before Notts made a couple of quick breakthroughs.

Harry Gurney, replacing Ben Phillips, produced a delightful away-swinger which glanced the outside edge of Cameron’s (25) bat on its way through to Chris Read.

David Lucas used to bowl left-arm fast-medium for Notts, a decade ago, and his modern-day successor, Gurney, ensured it would be a brief stay in the middle for the 33-year old Lucas (0).

Umpire Nick Cook’s finger confirming the sixth lbw of the innings with ‘Nelson’ showing on the board at 111-8.

Nine more runs were added before the lunch interval and Kapil (41) continued to bat positively after the restart.

He looked on course for a well-deserved fifty until Adams returned to the attack and pinned him in front of his stumps. The lbw decision was the seventh of the innings and brought Adams his 28th five-wicket haul in first class cricket.

Last man Alan Richardson arrived at the crease needing eight runs for his career 1,000. He added a couple but was denied the opportunity of reaching his milestone as Richard Jones manipulated the strike to good effect, striking the ball cleanly and powerfully as he lofted Gurney over the leg-side fence for six.

Gurney exacted immediate revenge though, having Jones (21) caught by Adams at third man as he top-edged an attempted pull.

All out for 157, Worcestershire had posted their highest first innings score of the season but still trailed by 86.

The Nottinghamshire openers combined to put on 23 for the first wicket, at which point Alex Hales (12) fell tamely. A leg stump half-volley from Jones was chipped straight into the hands of Cameron at midwicket.

Neil Edwards and Michael Lumb accumulated either side of the tea break before the bad light brought a stoppage on 66-1.

An all-too-brief resumption proved fatal for Lumb (16) as he fell to Lucas, for yet another lbw decision.

Neil Edwards (49 not out) lifted Jones into the pavilion seats and was unbeaten with Samit Patel (7 not out) when the umpires decided that no more play would be possible.

With a band of extremely wet weather scheduled to sweep across the region on the final day, the prospects of any further play, let alone a positive result, now seem unlikely.