Yorkshire 357 for 5 (Ballance 104, Kohler-Cadmore 92*, Tattersall 51) trail Nottinghamshire 448 by 91 runs
Scorecard
There was an old-fashioned feel to the third day here. For one thing, it rained. Spectators arrived ill-equipped, having left their umbrellas in the porch or in the car, lulled into thinking them an unnecessary accessory. They gathered at the back of the stands, or under top-tier overhangs, faintly amused at having been caught out.
The cricket felt like it was from another time, too: unhurried and attritional. Neither team would be particularly unhappy if a draw were to be the outcome on Friday evening and the tempo of Yorkshire's batting as they whittled away at Nottinghamshire's total has only occasionally altered. If they can avoid defeat, Yorkshire will go into next week's Roses match at Headingley only a point or two behind their relegation rivals with a game in hand.
The only frustrated figure in the Yorkshire dressing room, one might imagine, as the weather closed in 20 minutes after lunch, would be Tom Kohler-Cadmore, who is eight runs away from completing a first hundred in senior cricket since the one he made for Worcestershire against Yorkshire in the Royal London Cup in May last year.
His departure from New Road was not a pleasant one, of course, after Steve Rhodes, the Yorkshireman who was Worcestershire's coach, decided the batsman's proposed end-of-season move to Headingley might as well take effect immediately.
Kohler-Cadmore has not yet nailed down a place in Yorkshire's Championship team but has a chance to take advantage of the team's continuing state of flux and put that right between now and the end of the season.
Behind Alex Lees and Jack Leaning in the pecking order at the start, he was not recalled until the match against his former county at Scarborough last month, but with Lees gone to Durham and Leaning currently out of favour, an opportunity has arisen and he has responded well to it, this coming after his 81 against Somerset last week. He has 10 boundaries so far, but as much a feature of the innings has been his patience - another virtue not celebrated enough these days - which has so far sustained him for more than three and a half hours.
Only 33 overs were possible, during which time the Nottinghamshire bowlers found scarcely more encouragement in the pitch than they had on day two. Apart from a lively first hour on day one, it has been pretty unresponsive.
This served only to heighten their frustration more when chances were missed. Steven Mullaney spilled the easiest at second slip off Luke Wood just after Yorkshire had avoided the follow-on and collected their third batting point, but then dropped one himself at gully - albeit much tougher - of Mark Footitt.
Both times the beneficiary was Jonny Tattersall, the wicketkeeper in his first season of first XI cricket, on 30 and 38. He made something of his good luck, too, going on to complete his second first-class fifty in five matches before his opposite number Tom Moores did hold on to a catch, taken one-handed low to his right, as Harry Gurney at last made a breakthrough, ending a stand that added 102 for the fifth wicket.
Expect some acceleration in the scoring rate at the start of the final day at least. Yorkshire have seven overs in which to score 43 runs for an extra batting point and, given that staying up might yet come down to as little as one point they would be wise to chase it.
