Tom Westley made an unbeaten 82 as Essex recovered on a shortened third day of their LV= Championship clash against Gloucestershire at Chelmsford.
Starting the day on 30-2 in reply to Gloucestershire's 409-5, Westley put on 116 with Ravi Bopara to bat Essex out of a spot of trouble.
Bopara made 64, and Mark Pettini was 18 not out at the close as Essex reachd 177-3 on a day when just 44 overs were possible.
A wet morning meant there was no chance of play starting on time at the Essex County Ground, and an initial scheduled start of 12.30 was also curtailed by a downpour.
Eventually the rain abated long enough for another inspection, and umpires Richard Illingworth and Martin Saggers decided on a 2.50 start, which was eventually pushed back by five more minutes.
When play finally did resume at 2.55, Tom Westley and Ravi Bopara set about reducing the arrears and despite some tricky conditions, they looked at ease.
Westley brought up the home side's 50 with a good straight drive, and Bopara – who had two disappointing scores in the game with Cambridge UCCE last week – also looked in good nick.
The teams managed 9.4 overs before their next break in play – due to bad light – with the score on 63-2, but less than 20 minutes later they were back in action.
And Essex continued to cut into the visitors' 409-5 declared, making their way to 101-2 at tea.
Both batsmen were in the 40s at the interval, and when they returned, Westley was the first to his half-century, brought up with a straight drive off the bowling of Benny Howell from 81 balls, with ten fours.
In the next over Bopara too was able to raise his bat to the pavilion after reaching his 50 from 84 balls, hitting five fours.
The Essex pair were largely untroubled as the sun finally showed its face across the county ground, Bopara taking their partnership past 100 with a cracking drive past mid-off.
But the partnership was broken with the score on 139, Howell trapping Bopara in front for a well-made 64.
New man Mark Pettini was straight off the mark with two, but could have been run out on three when Westley's shot hit James Fuller on the foot and fell to Liam Norwell, and as the batsmen took a quick single, Pettini would have been out with a direct hit.
Gloucestershire's attack didn't seem to pose too many problems for the home side, although Westley did cause some excitement with an inside edge but it raced away to the boundary to take him to 79.
He added three more to his total before another stoppage, this time for bad light, brought play to a close with the score on 177-3.
With just one day remaining, a draw looks like the likely outcome, although Essex will want to add more batting points on day four.
