At tea, he was unbeaten on 108 and, at 276-4, Gloucestershire’s lead had grown to a promising 172. They had added just seven to it in the final session when Boorman, on 42, chased a wide ball from Balderson and edged to Keaton Jennings at second slip.

Anderson had been unable to get much response from the third-day pitch, but his perseverance paid when he pinned Graeme van Buuren lbw for a single to make it 294-6. With his tail up, the Lancashire captain then bowled Bracey off a bottom edge attempting to pull and followed up next ball by having Henry Brookes caught behind trying to withdraw the bat.

Suddenly, Gloucestershire were 297-8. Soon it was 305-9 when Matt Taylor chipped a high catch to Anderson at mid-on off Balderson, who finished off the innings by bowling Gabe Bell. The last six wickets had fallen for 22 runs.

Lancashire’s second innings began badly when Singh was bowled for a duck by a ball from Will Williams that clipped off stump. But Josh Bohannon soon went on the attack and had hit 6 fours in moving to 31 when bowled middle stump by Bell with the score on 45.

With no addition to the score, Marcus Harris fell lbw to Taylor and Gloucestershire were still in the fight.

Report by ECB Reporters’ Network, supported by Rothesay.