Nottinghamshire secured three late scalps in a disrupted evening session to breathe new life into their LV= Insurance County Championship match against Lancashire, leaving all results possible on the final day.
George Balderson and Josh Bohannon had shared a partnership of 188 for the second wicket but both fell short of individual hundreds, Balderson missing out on what would have been his maiden century in first-class cricket when he was out for 91.
Bohannon fell on 92 soon afterwards as the hosts made gains late in a day which saw 31 overs bowled.
Lancashire reached 219/4 at stumps, leading by 184 ahead of a final day for which better weather is forecast.
Balderson, who had moved from 44 overnight to 90 during a shortened but productive morning session, completed an 89-ball half-century that included nine fours, and went on to add a further seven boundaries.
But he had added only one more single to his score following the day's longest stoppage when he edged a ball from Stone to second slip where Ben Duckett held a good low catch.
After another, mercifully very brief stoppage for a shower, Bohannon edged James to second slip, where Duckett got his hands under another low catch as Lancashire’s top scorer so far this season perished for 92.
James quickly followed that success with a second wicket, pinning stand-in skipper Dane Vilas lbw for two with a ball that struck just below the knee roll, and Lancashire will have welcomed a final stoppage for bad light more than Nottinghamshire, even after Stone left the field four balls into his fifth over of the truncated evening session.
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