In a hitherto compellingly tight contest, Somerset wrested a clear ascendancy after tea on the second day of their Rothesay County Championship meeting with champions Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge.

Resuming earlier on 295 for seven, they added only 15 more as Fergus O’Neill snatched the last three wickets to return a career-best six for 72, leaving Archie Vaughan unbeaten on 66.

After 45 minutes of the afternoon, however, Lewis Gregory and Jack Leach had reduced the reply to 82 for five, Leach going on to three for 44, his skipper to four for 51 before tweaking a muscle.

Jack Haynes, reaching 57, proved the mainstay of the first division leader’s relative recovery until he became the last of four wickets suddenly to fall for 15 in a total of 193. Facing 21 overs when batting again, Somerset were formidably placed on 73 for two at the close, their lead a potentially decisive 190.

A third-wicket alliance of 60 in 20 overs either side of lunch had revived the home side from nine for two, only for three batters to depart in 20 minutes. Leach, introduced straight after the interval, struck in his third over when Freddie McCann edged behind for 31 and the left-arm spinner soon had Lyndon James, LBW for the match’s sixth duck.

In between, Gregory, followed his new-ball removal of both openers with the key wicket of Joe Clarke from the fourth ball of his second spell. Clarke’s 36 runs had just taken him beyond David Lawrence to the highest aggregate (784) of anyone so far this season.

But an attempted dab produced only a bottom edge into his stumps and a similar fate befell Liam Patterson-White, cutting at Leach and playing on for 29 after 40 had been added with Haynes. By tea, on 171 for six, Haynes was 43, O’Neill 21.

Haynes immediately reached his fifty on resumption, his care shown by a total of only four fours, but another opportune Gregory intervention saw off his partner without addition with, once again, the fourth ball of a new spell. Brett Hutton, top-edging a pull, then came and went to Migael Pretorius for six.

Gregory pulled up next over and had to leave the fray but Craig Overton, taking over, inflicted the match’s seventh duck when Dillon Penning fell LBW and Haynes, seeking the strike with the last man now in, swiped but skied Overton to the ‘keeper.

With a lead of 117 on first-innings and good weather predicted, Somerset were patently well placed to win, though they succumbed to Glamorgan only two games ago despite an advantage of 125. Nottinghamshire have lost just once in their last 22 matches and at least removed both openers in the last 31 balls under evening sun.

During a frantic start earlier, five men had fallen within 55 minutes as O’Neill whipped out the visitors’ remaining wickets before captain Gregory, in riposte, undid opposite number Haseeb Hameed, edging a loose drive to third slip from the reply’s fourth ball, and then Ben Slater LBW for one.

In a difficult season, it was Hameed’s second successive duck, and third in eight innings, after such an outstanding success last year. For O’Neill, however, his eight games since signing for Notts in 2025 have remained spectacular: 40 wickets at 16.85 by the close of the day is a record of which the county might only have dreamed. He has one more match to play before returning to Australia.

Vaughan, with his first fifty in 21 innings already in the bag overnight, was stranded 15 short of a career-best, as in turn Jack Leach, not adding to his 21, Pretorius and Alfie Ogborne, both without score, brought O’Neill his fourth Championship five-wicket bag and his first haul of six anywhere. It well may prove in vain.