There could yet be a rousing finale to the championship season at Headingley on Saturday for, assuming that Lancashire go on to beat Warwickshire over the Pennines, both these teams will need to win if they are to grab the prize money newly on offer for finishing fourth.

This would amount to about £2,750 for a regular player: a nice little earner, by way of a bonus, even for today’s cricketers. But, with 24 overs lost to bad light after tea — making a total of 45, so far — Hampshire may need the help of friendly bowling if they are to be able to declare about lunchtime.

Yorkshire’s hopes of a less contrived win disappeared in seven overs of the new ball, taken straight after lunch. As James Tomlinson struck twice in 13 balls and David Griffiths twice in eight, the home side declined from 259 for three to 277 for seven and surrendered their chance of a decisive lead.

Indeed, despite an unbeaten 50 off 52 balls from Jonathan Bairstow, who turns 20, they conceded a three-run first-innings deficit when Deon Kruis’s whooshing drive gave a juggling catch to Dominic Cork at slip and a second success to Danny Briggs, the teenage left-arm spinner.

A dozen matches in his maiden season have now brought Bairstow, Yorkshire’s undisputed Young Player of the Year, five championship fifties, all of them unbroken. He added 35 in eight overs as Ajmal Shahzad supported with four at the other end for the eighth wicket.

Shahzad, the object of a very good offer from Middlesex in addition to two first-division counties, is valued most for his quick bowling, which smacks of genuine Test potential. But he can also bat, albeit in perhaps the most distinctive style in the domestic game. Like a latter-day Kim Barnett, he takes guard far outside leg stump but walks well outside his off as the ball is bowled. He eventually slashed at one even wider still as Sean Ervine, who then removed Matthew Hoggard, claimed wickets with successive balls. Kruis, greeted by eight close catchers, survived the hat-trick.

In the morning, David Wainwright cut to backward point for 21 but Joe Sayers, his overnight partner, was on the verge of his season’s third century when he fell foul of Cork’s veteran wiles. Out for 95, he top-edged a pull to one of two men in the deep, taking the bait after a series of bouncers.

Hampshire: First Innings 351 (M J Lumb 81, J H K Adams 51; A Shahzad 4 for 75)
Second Innings
J H K Adams not out 16
L A Dawson not out 16
Extras (b 9) 9
Total (no wkt, 15.3 overs) 41
Bowling: Hoggard 7-2-14-0; Shahzad 7.3-3-9-0; Kruis 1-0-9-0.

Yorkshire: First Innings
J A Rudolph c Tomlinson b Briggs 68
J J Sayers c Tomlinson b Cork 95
D J Wainwright c Briggs b Mascarenhas 21
A Lyth c Adams b Griffiths 26
*A McGrath c Dawson b Tomlinson 25
A W Gale c Pothas b Tomlinson 1
J M Bairstow not out 50
†G L Brophy c Pothas b Griffiths 0
A Shahzad c Pothas b Ervine 4
M J Hoggard c Benham b Ervine 0
G J Kruis c Cork b Briggs 20
Extras (lb 6, w 6, nb 26) 38
Total (109.4 overs) 348
Fall of wickets: 1-162, 2-209, 3-231, 4-259, 5-273, 6-273, 7-277, 8-317, 9-319.
Bowling: Griffiths 23-7-73-2; Mascarenhas 22-8-44-1; Cork 19-7-44-1; Tomlinson 21-4-83-2; Briggs 15.4-3-37-2; Ervine 9-0-61-2.
Umpires: M J D Bodenham and N G Cowley.