Hampshire are further adrift at the bottom of the LV County Championship first division after a fortuitous draw against Kent at the Rose Bowl.
After being bowled out for 215 in reply to Kent's 413-8 declared, Hampshire were forced to follow on against their nearest rivals at the wrong end of the table.
But after reaching 33-0, a downpour ended Kent's hopes of forcing the win that had looked possible, despite the poor forecast, when Ryan McLaren dismissed Tom Burrows and Shane Bond in quick succession to leave Hampshire 179-9.
Azhar Mahmood had found late outswing in seeing off Dimitri Mascarenhas (45) and Greg Lamb (27) during four probing overs from the Pavilion End after Hampshire had resumed on 130-5.
Then McLaren went above James Tomlinson to go second in the first division's list of leading wicket-takers with a double whammy that took his tally to 23 at 17.39.
But the Kolpak all rounder was grateful for some athleticism in the slip cordon and a questionable lbw decision from umpire Jeremy Lloyds.
Burrows departed when James Tredwell palmed the ball down at third slip for an alert Martin van Jaarsveld to take a two-handed diving catch at second.
And Bond looked a little unfortunate to be dismissed for a two-ball duck when he went back and across to a McLaren off-cutter that appeared to strike him outside the line of off stump.
Chris Tremlett responded by smashing three sixes when off-spinner Tredwell was introduced to boost his side's slow over rate.
With last-man Tomlinson at the other end, Tremlett launched Tredwell's second delivery over long-off before hitting two sixes in succession over long-on to at least ensure a batting point for Hampshire.
His 32-ball 38 ended with an unplayable delivery from Amjad Khan. It lifted sharply off a length before looping to first slip off the gloves of the big England bowler.
Kent wasted no time in enforcing the follow on but only six matches in the Rose Bowl's seven-year history have been more adversely affected by the weather and the forecasted rain duly arrived.