With the match approaching its final hour, the rain arrived to keep the players off the field for 51 crucial minutes.

Minutes earlier, Matthew Muchall had removed Gateshead Fell danger man Martin Bekker for 85 to put his side in the box seat.

South Northumberland beat Tynemouth to all but secure the title, leaving Shields with a single focus of securing second place.

Skipper Dan Shurben will have been relieved to revert to Plan A and bat first on the Eastwood Gardens pitch.

The glut of rain made scoring difficult, although the conditions enabled Paul Muchall to become entrenched and anchor the innings.

By his own high standards the impish all-rounder has lacked fluency of late, but he thrived in his role of guiding Shields to a declaration at the half-way mark; his undefeated 103 was compiled in 217 minutes from 185 balls, including eight fours.

After Shurben departed early, Geoff Cullen continued his rich vein of form to pass 50 for the sixth time this season.

He added 103 with Muchall before Mike Fishwick injected vim and vigour into the innings with an innings of 44 from just 50 balls in a partnership of 92 with Muchall.

In a quest to keep Muchall on strike, Chris Dorothy, Michael Dunn and Chris Rainbow perished for the team cause in the final throes before a declaration was called on 232-6 after 60 overs.

Fell's top batsmen – South African, Martin Bekker and Durham's Will Gidman – lurked down the order at four and five while the unprolific Danny Clark, John Devenport and Richie Smith were the top three charged with absorbing as many of Jonny Wightman's and Matty Muchall's overs as possible.

Muchall and Wightman proved too hot to handle and brought Gidman and Bekker to the crease while the ball was still hard and shiny.

Flamboyant and imposing, Bekker is enjoying a marvellous season with the bat (680 league runs to date) – no surprise given his splendid first class record for KwaZulu-Natal.

Bekker has to be dismissed to avoid defeat. If anything, Gidman's and Ben Young's dismissals to Paul Muchall only fuelled Bekker's fire.

However, more surprising was the support he received from Pete Towner, who has no record to speak of with the bat this term.

The pair frustrated the Shieldsmen in adding 85 for the sixth wicket before Cullen picked up his second catch of the afternoon off the bowling of Matthew Muchall to account for the South African.

Back in the driving seat, South Shields led having more than an hour to go at Towner and the tail, but the localised downpour ended the contest as a spectacle.

Had Shields's bowling unit been at their irresistible best, the contest could have been wrapped up before the rain arrived. The Muchall brothers shared seven of the eight wickets to fall.

The players returned for four overs of jousting when Gateshead Fell's all-out search for bonus points did give the visitors a very slim chance of picking up four wickets.

They claimed two of them but, thanks to Bekker, Fell's superior run rate saw them pick up 13 points, while Shields pocketed a somewhat unjust 11 points.

The second XI have struggled to compensate for the players promoted to first team duty to cover for long-term absentees Philip Bell and Oliver Stedman.

A young side full of promise has struggled throughout the season to put runs on the board in a highly competitive environment.

To their credit, the determined team has stuck together and morale has remained high.

At Wood Terrace on Monday, Chris Nichol, with the wind at his back, bowled 15 overs off the belt with the nip and carry that characterised his wonderful performances for the senior side last season.

Both he and Greg Siddell collected four scalps to dismiss Gateshead Fell for just 127.

The temperament and technique of Andrew Elliott are the hallmarks of future success at first-team level. He found game support from fellow junior Sam Embleton.

The win gives Anth Marshall's team every chance of escaping the table's basement by the close of the season.