Chris Read was accompanied to the middle by a standing ovation and a guard of honour as the Nottinghamshire captain took to the Trent Bridge turf with his bat in hand for the last time on the third day of the Specsavers County Championship match against Worcestershire.

Sadly, for Read, he only made 38 out of his county’s second innings score of 275 as the unbeaten Division Two leaders came under pressure from their closest challengers. Joe Leach was the pick of the visitors’ attack, claiming five for 69.

Set to score 226 to pick up a victory that would strengthen their own promotion chances, Worcestershire had reached 123 for two when bad light forced an early finish.

Daryl Mitchell will begin the final day on 63 not out, with his side requiring 103 more runs for victory.

Speaking after the game, seamer Jake Ball was pleased to make a significant contribution alongside Read in his final innings. 

“I enjoyed batting, especially putting on a 50 partnership with Ready (Chris Read) in his last innings, it was really nice to be out there with him," he said. 

“We bought ourselves a couple of partnerships with that score but they got off to a good start. You never know, there’s enough balls in the pitch, so hopefully tomorrow we can make a couple of early inroads and make it nervy for them.”

Notts resumed their second innings on 138 for five at the start of the day but were rocked with the loss of Jake Libby in just the fourth over. The opener had battled through 122 deliveries in making 44, before being bowled by Ed Barnard.

Leach then took his fourth and fifth wickets of the innings, having Brendan Taylor caught behind for 18, before pinning Brett Hutton lbw for 32.

The whole ground stood to applaud Read on his way out to the middle, with the Worcestershire players and the umpires lining up to show their appreciation. 

Read has just two further matches to play before retirement, both away from Nottingham, but he gave his home followers some timely reminders of why he will be missed, with a flurry of scampered singles, interspersed with a succession of flowing drives and a pulled six off Josh Tongue.

With Jake Ball for company, he added 56 for the ninth wicket but then fell lbw to Barnard, who also had Harry Gurney caught behind for five, to finish with three for 78. Ball was left unbeaten on 34.

Worcestershire began their chase with Mitchell and George Rhodes at the crease and they were untroubled in putting 57 on, together.

Hutton broke their partnership, scattering Rhodes’ stumps for 21. Tom Fell was spilled on four, by Cheteshwar Pujara at third slip, before eventually being bowled by Steven Mullaney for 30.

Joe Clarke, who was bowled first ball on the second day, arrived out in the middle, only for the umpires to declare that the light had deteriorated sufficiently for play to be suspended, with 22.1 overs still remaining.