A further 10 to 30mm has been forecast for Sunday, which will likely deny five-down Westbury the chance to chase the 30 runs needed to claim first innings points and force a result.

The NTCA No.1 ground proved difficult to score on during day one, and the match appeared to be in the balance when stumps were called with Westbury five wickets down.  

Shamrocks skipper Richard Howe said he was disappointed not to take the field but hoped the game could reach a natural conclusion on Sunday.

“To bowl those guys out for 88 was fantastic,” he said.

“Obviously 5-59 is not an ideal start but with 30 runs to go, we’d back ourselves in to get that five wickets down, so it’s just a matter of getting an hour or two’s play in over the course of the next 24 hours.

“It’s supposed to rain most of the day but hopefully it can clear up for a couple of hours so we can get the ground up to scratch and get a game in.”

Westbury faced 27 overs on Friday after South Launceston batted for all but one ball of 60 overs.

Howe said his side had considered going all out to pass the total before stumps. 

“It crossed our mind.

“The rain wasn’t supposed to come until after lunchtime, so for it to come two or three hours earlier than expected probably hurt us in the long run.

“But at the same time you could go out and go hard and be bowled out for 50 or 60 with the ball doing a bit, so it was good Liam (Ryan) and Jakey (Williams) hung around there towards the end and put on a nice little partnership which was looking pretty good.”

Knights skipper Alec Smith agreed the game was evenly-poised but backed his side to take the five wickets should the rain hold off.

The league’s player of the year praised his pace twins Casey and Jack Young for keeping the Knights in the game by combining for five wickets.

“Casey and Jack were fantastic - for Jack to get a few early wickets and Casey to bowl a long spell really consistently was really pleasing,” Smith said.

“We had to get early wickets otherwise we were in a bit of strife, so credit to those guys for bowling really well.

“We’ll back ourselves in if we play and back our bowlers in to bowl as well as they did yesterday, if not better, and hopefully that’s good enough.”

The second grade grand final also failed to get under way, putting ladder leaders Mowbray in the box seat to go back-to-back.