Lancashire captain Glen Chapple took five Hampshire wickets to help his side gain an important lead of 100 going into the final day of the LV= County Championship Division Two match at the Ageas Bowl.
The veteran seamer finished with 5-55, a haul that takes him to 899 career first-class wickets, and it might have been better still had Lancashire taken all their catches.
Hampshire top-scorer George Bailey was twice dropped on his way to 84, an innings which restricted the Red Rose’s first-innings advantage to 37 when it might have been much bigger.
On a wicket still helping the pacemen, Chapple produced a masterful display of swing bowling to cut a swathe through the Hampshire middle order.
The 39-year-old dismissed James Vince, Sean Ervine, Michael Bates and Chris Wood in six balls, three of them bowled and Vince caught at second slip.
Hampshire, responding to Lancashire's first-innings total of 295 made over the first two days, went from 138 for three to 164 for eight when Chapple struck again by having David Balcombe caught at midwicket.
Chapple's five-wicket haul was the 37th of his long career - and first against Hampshire - and should have been the signal for the end of the home side's resistance.
But Tasmanian Bailey, playing in his last match before joining Australia's Champions Trophy squad, went on the counter-attack by sharing in respective stands of 57 and 37 with Danny Briggs and last man James Tomlinson.
Briggs made 31 and the innings ended at 258 when Bailey drove Kyle Hogg into the covers, where Luke Procter held the catch.
Bailey, still looking for a first century for his adopted county, faced 110 balls and hit a six and 10 fours as Lancashire failed to press home their advantage.
Earlier in the innings Liam Dawson hit five fours in his 55 and there was little hint of the drama to come.
When Lancashire batted a second time in the evening session, they soon lost Stephen Moore to a catch at the wicket off Balcombe, while Procter and Ashwell Prince to Tomlinson's exaggerated swing.
Lancashire were 27 for three at that point but Brown and first-innings hero Andrea Agathangelou ensured there were no more problems, taking their team through to the close at 63 for three.
