Olly Stone returned his best Nottinghamshire figures as the Green and Golds took a slender but potentially crucial first-innings lead over Surrey on day two at the Kia Oval.
On a green-top pitch that continues to offer assistance to the bowlers, an at times-unplayable Stone took full advantage to claim 6/44 as Surrey were bowled out for 162, handing the visitors an advantage of 22.
Dillon Pennington added 2/28 from 16 wholehearted overs, while Brett Hutton and Liam Patterson-White contributed a further one apiece, before the visitors advanced to 147-3 at stumps, in front by 169.
Having fought back valiantly with the bat at the back end of their innings on day one, led by Patterson-White’s gutsy 76 not out, Notts held optimism coming into the day, and they were quickly to their work.
It took only 15 minutes for Hutton to see off nightwatcher Matthew Fisher for 10, pinned lbw with a fine ball as Surrey added only 12 to their overnight score before suffering a first loss.
Although home captain Rory Burns and Adam Thomas proceeded to add 59 for the third wicket, Stone soon roared in with a rampant spell that swung the game on its head.
Having overcome the Burns-Thomas axis by seeing off the latter for 44, cutting uppishly to deep third where Pennington claimed a smart catch, he then removed Ollie Pope for a five-ball duck.
It was Jack Haynes who completed the job to dismiss the former England man, snaffling the catch at third slip, and it left Surrey at 105-4 heading into lunch, still 79 in arrears.
Less than half an hour after the resumption, and with only eight further runs on the board, a fired-up Stone then struck twice more in the space of two balls to complete a stunning five-for.
Thomas was first to go, falling to an outstanding delivery that knocked back his middle stump while he was two shy of fifty, before debutant Mahipal Lomror edged his first ball to Patterson-White at first slip.
That gave Stone figures of 5/30, and although Josh Blake edged the hat-trick ball for a streaky four, Pennington picked up the mantle to claim the next two.
The important scalp of Ben Foakes, caught by Freddie McCann at second slip for 12, was his first, before Jordan Clark’s torturous 18-ball stay was ended when he was lbw for only four.
With Surrey eight down and still over 50 behind, captain Haseeb Hameed tossed the ball to Patterson-White for the first spell of spin in the match, and it took only 16 deliveries before he struck too.
Blake, who had resisted for 49 balls for his 20, was the man to go, with an outside edge claimed by Kyle Verreynne behind the stumps to give the visitors another important scalp.
The returning Stone then nabbed his sixth of the innings when he sent Tom Lawes’ off stump cartwheeling in dream fast-bowler fashion, with the Brown Caps skittled and Notts holding a lead.
With tea called at that point, it left a mammoth evening session of 46 overs for the visitors to extend that 22-run advantage once play resumed.
They did so in confident, measured fashion, with a contribution of 37 apiece from Ben Slater and Joe Clarke the top individual scores, while the latter and Jack Haynes - who ended with 34 to his name - added a stand worth 50 for the fourth wicket.
With the gloom gathering again, it remained tricky conditions in which to bat, but the latter duo calmly kept their heads to push the lead beyond Surrey's first innings total late on.