Michael Lumb's 82 was enough to keep Hampshire slightly ahead of a rain-interrupted match against champions Sussex at the Rose Bowl.

But the man himself had mixed feelings about his ninth half-century for these employers, since his move south from Yorkshire at the start of last season.

The problem is that the left-hander has yet to convert any of those 50s into three figures - a knack associated with top batsmen.

Lumb could add only five runs before he went lbw to Robin Martin-Jenkins during little more than half-an-hour of play which proved possible as rain wiped out the final two sessions on day three of this LV County Championship Division One fixture.

Hampshire moved from 304 for six to 319 for seven in reply to Sussex's 332 all out in a match which, with fair weather, might have been a cracker but looks doomed to finish in a draw - with another soggy forecast for the final day.

As for Lumb, another missed chance of a hundred for Hampshire - on a ground where ironically he achieved the feat twice for the White Rose - is a source of understandable regret.

"Obviously it is frustrating - getting starts - and it's something PT [manager Paul Terry] and I have spoken about," said the South African-born middle-order batsman. "But I know that if I keep preparing well and doing the right things it will come. It will change.

"It was nice to spend some time in the middle, and I felt in pretty good touch."

Lumb was surprised to hear afterwards that nine of his last 13 championship innings have been ended by an lbw dismissal - but it does not appear to be a fact which is causing him distress.

"When I play my best I'm hitting down the ground; if I am falling over that is obviously a technical thing we can look at," he promised.

He was nonetheless encouraged by a 147-ball stay, including 11 fours and a six, at his first attempt this year.

"I just wanted to spend some time in the middle," he said, having played less fluently than is often the case but shown significant determination.

"The Rose Bowl, early on in the season, is quite a tough wicket to score on - especially because it was quite slow, so you couldn't really hit through the line," he explained.

"Their bowlers didn't really have the pace to stand up and hit through it, so you had to really wait for the right ball.

"It made it pretty tough for everyone to score."

Lumb's sixth-wicket partnership with Greg Lamb ended on 80, after play got under way half-an-hour late on a drizzly morning.

He appeared to lose his balance slightly, trying to push an innocuous ball from Martin-Jenkins to leg, leaving Lamb and Dimitri Mascarenhas in pursuit of a first-innings lead - until the rain returned for good at mid-day.

If any play is possible tomorrow, it will almost certainly decide only whether each team can bag an extra bonus point in the 18 overs remaining before the cut-off.

Lumb, however, has already seen enough to bolster his belief that Hampshire - relegation candidates for many pundits - will be a match for Sussex and the rest this season.

"They've won the title for the last few years, so obviously they're going to be favourites," he said of the champions.

"But if it hadn't rained here, we could have had them in a bit of trouble - so don't write us off."