With a fighting innings of 51 not out, which has lasted nearly two and a half hours, Robin Weston was attempting to bring stability to the Middlesex innings after five wickets had gone down for 124.

The last to fall was Paul Weekes' wicket, caught at cover for 13 from a lofted shot, an hour before bad light and rain brought an end to proceedings at 5.44pm with seven overs remaining of the second day's play. Middlesex had reached 169 for five.

Having made a slow but solid start to their first innings, the home side had struggled to consolidate during the last two sessions of play.

Their opening stand put 74 on the board when two wickets went in successive overs. Michael Roseberry, who was dropped at slip before he had scored, was caught on 30 off the outside edge as he pushed forward to off spinner Suaun Udal in the 34th over.

In the next over, Dimitri Mascarenhas bowled Andy Strauss for 33 and then struck again three overs later, having Stephen Fleming caught at slip for five. That gave him two wickets for seven in six overs of accurate pace bowling.

Shortly before tea, which was taken on 119 for four, Middlesex lost Ben Hutton for six when Neil Johnson took his second catch, at slip. It was off Udal who claimed his second wicket for 41 in twenty overs.

Earlier this morning, a big-hitting spree by Hampshire's tail-enders added 94 runs in only 74 minutes before they were dismissed for 404 an hour before lunch.

After losing his partner Adrian Aymes, who managed to add only six to his overnight score of 63 before falling leg before wicket to Phil Tufnell, Udal went on to become the fifth Hampshire batsman to score a half-century in the innings. Remarkably, this is the second time this season that five Hampshire batsmen have hit half-centuries in a single innings.

Hampshire's eighth-wicket stand of 114 fell just five short of their record against Middlesex.

Udal's fifty was the quickest of the five, coming from 81 balls and included six boundaries. He hit two of those off Angus Fraser in the second over of the morning, one to square leg and the other between long leg and square.

Alex Morris kept up the scoring rate after Udal had skied to be caught at mid-wicket off Paul Weekes. He had been dropped earlier at short mid-wicket off Tufnell, but continued with his hard hitting which brought him six boundaries and a six over the sight screen off Weekes who eventually bowled him when he was only seven short of yet another fifty by a Hampshire batsman.

With his dismissal, Weekes completed his first five-wicket haul in five years. The last occasion was against Glamorgan when he had eight for 39, his best first-class figures.

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