Two late wickets from Harry Gurney gave Nottinghamshire some hope of being able to forge a first innings advantage as their Specsavers County Championship match against Somerset reached the halfway point, at Trent Bridge.
With century stands for the first two wickets, the visitors were making inroads into Nottinghamshire’s first innings total but Gurney nipped out both Chris Rogers and James Hildreth in the closing stages to leave Somerset on 244 for three at stumps, still 157 behind.
Marcus Trescothick remains at the crease, unbeaten on 117 and Jack Leach is with him as the nightwatchman.
Earlier, Nottinghamshire’s first innings ended on 401 in the third over of the afternoon, with Craig Overton taking four of the last six wickets to fall, to finish with figures of four for 54.
Steven Mullaney was the first of his victims, falling for 165, which took 385 minutes to compile.
The day began with Nottinghamshire on 311 for four, with Mullaney unbeaten on 161 and Luke Fletcher on one.
Mullaney clipped his first ball of the day for four to match his career best score of 165 but fell without further addition, edging Overton behind.
Samit Patel began brightly and rattled three boundaries away in racing to 15 but then pulled Overton straight to Hildreth at midwicket.
That wicket gave Somerset their second bowling point and left Notts still needing 14 to get a fourth batting point but Fletcher and Chris Read achieved their goal with a couple of deliveries to spare.
Fletcher batted for a total of 103 minutes in making 32 but was undone by one from Jim Allenby that struck him in front.
Next ball, from the other end, Chris Read, 15, was also rattled on the pads and sent on his way, giving Jack Leach his third wicket of the innings.
Somerset wound up the innings shortly after lunch as Brett Hutton and Harry Gurney fell in quick succession. Overton removed them both to catches by the ‘keeper, Hutton for five and the number eleven for a second-ball duck.
Trescothick and Johann Myburgh set off at a fair old rate, finding the boundary on 14 occasions in the first 15 overs.
Notts thought they’d got Trescothick on 20 but their celebrations were quickly muted as umpire O’Shaughnessy failed to agree that the left-hander had nicked behind.
Runs came quickly, with the hundred partnership arriving in the 21st over. Myburgh was first to his 50, getting there from the first delivery sent down by Tahir.
One over later the bowler had his revenge, turning a leg break sharply into the off peg to remove the opener for 54.
Marcus Trescothick’s hundred meant that he equalled a 63-year-old county record and broke a long-standing hoodoo by scoring the first century of his career in Nottingham.
In 17 previous matches on the ground, stretching back to 1997, the 40-year old left-hander had not reached three figures for either his county or country but brought up the milestone in just 122 deliveries, with 19 fours and a six.
Somerset’s first wicket pairing of Trescothick and Johann Myburgh put on 123 before Imran Tahir bowled the latter for 54.
Trescothick, who made a pair in last season’s corresponding fixture, brought up his 50 from 60 balls, with 12 fours and then shared in a second wicket stand of 101 with Rogers.
On reaching 20, Rogers also had reason to celebrate as he brought up 25,000 career runs. The Australian looked untroubled throughout his stay, until casually flicking Harry Gurney down the leg side for 48.
Gurney was then gifted a second wicket as Hildreth, inexplicably, left alone a delivery from the pace man that uprooted a couple of stumps.
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