Gloucestershire seamer Matt Taylor bowled his side back into contention as the wickets tumbled on day two of a fast-moving County Championship contest against Northamptonshire at Bristol.
Replying to the home side’s first-innings 154, Northants were shot out for 127 inside 52 overs, Taylor returning figures of 5-36 with fellow seamer Craig Miles taking 3-22 on a day when 57.4 overs were lost to rain and bad light.
Captain Luke Procter top-scored with 38 for the visitors, who suffered a startling collapse in the final session, their last six wickets falling for 42 runs on a hybrid surface still offering plenty of assistance to the bowlers.
There was no let-up in the chaos when Gloucestershire recommenced their second innings in the early-evening gloom.
Harry Conway removed nightwatchman Will Williams and top order batter Ben Charlesworth with successive deliveries and Ben Sanderson sent back a second nightwatchman, Miles, as the home side reached stumps on 21-3.
Skipper Cameron Bancroft and Ollie Price prevented further loss and Gloucestershire, who lead by 48, will be hoping an improved weather forecast materialises when they resume in the morning.
Attempting to win a four-day game in Bristol for the first time since 2013, Northants had resumed on 37-3 and were immediately under pressure as Gloucestershire’s seamers exploited a two-paced hybrid pitch and cloudy overhead conditions.
Left-armer Taylor struck an early blow, angling a delivery into leg stump and removing Nathan McSweeney lbw for six with the score 39-4 as batting continued to prove a hazardous business.
Procter and Saif Zaib were spared the test when a band of rain moved in soon afterwards, forcing the players off for an hour and causing 16 overs to be lost.
When play resumed beneath lighter skies, the fifth-wicket pair displayed commendable patience and discipline, eschewing risk in favour of waiting for the bad ball under the Bristol floodlights.
They doubled the score to calm Northants nerves, reaching the lunch interval on 83-4. But with more rain disrupting play in the middle session 41 overs had been lost by the time play resumed at 17:00 BST.
Gloucestershire immediately assumed the upper hand, Miles claiming three wickets in 14 balls from the Ashley Down Road end to fundamentally alter the balance of power.
Having served up dogged defiance for 104 balls, Procter suffered an uncharacteristic rush of blood to the head, pulling a Miles bumper high to Taylor at deep square.
Dropped by Bancroft at second slip off the bowling of Williams on 19 in the previous over, Zaib was not so fortunate when he inexplicably took on another short-pitched delivery from Miles and top-edged to long leg.
Miles was to make further inroads, too, having George Bartlett caught behind down the leg side.
When he was replaced by Taylor, the latter then accounted for Lewis McManus and Sanderson with successive deliveries in the 46th over. McManus aimed a big drive at a Taylor in-swinger and was comprehensively bowled, while Sanderson chipped to mid-off as Northants slumped to 106-9.
James Sales and Liam Guthrie added 21 for the last wicket before the latter holed out to mid-wicket as Taylor completed his second five-wicket haul of the season.
