Nottinghamshire were left cursing the weather as more heavy rain prevented a Championship win over Derbyshire despite heroics from Charlie Shreck and Mark Wagh.

Derbyshire 108 (Shreck 7-35)
Notts 302-2 (Wagh 123*, Patel 89*)
Derbyshire 95-3

Match drawn
Notts 10 points, Derbyshire 4 points
Scorecard

Shreck claimed his fourth five-wicket haul of the season as Derbyshire were dismissed in 35.3 overs before Wagh stepped up to register his first hundred for Notts since moving from Warwickshire at the end of last season.

And despite seeing the first two days completely washed out due to thunderstorms and with only 115 overs of play possible on days three and four, Notts could easily have walked away with victory as Derbyshire then slipped to 25-3 before rain rescued the visitors.

Skipper Stephen Fleming declared the first innings closed on 302-2, missing out on two possible batting points in order to press for victory.

Director of Cricket Mick Newell said: “We certainly wanted to push for the win and although the forecast was bad, it was well worth a try.

“The idea before the day began was to reach 350 and then declare, but with play delayed until 12.30pm we had to change our plans.

“In the end we have to be reasonably happy to get 10 points out of such an abbreviated game, and given that Essex were also held to a draw, we can go into the mid-season break for the Twenty20 Cup in second place and only just behind Somerset.”

Bad weather plagued the match, with thunderstorms washing out day one just before day was scheduled to begin in the afternoon.

That storm left much of the outfield underwater and forced day two to be abandoned before the players even arrived at Trent Bridge, with the groundstaff removing more than 100,000 litres of water to allow play to finally start at 1.25pm on day three.

And Shreck was the perfect man to take advantage of the damp and overcast conditions, as his swing bowling proved far too good for the visiting batsmen, who collapsed to 108 all out.

He only picked up one wicket in his first spell, with Simon Francis picking up a wicket on debut as well as Mark Ealham.

Shreck then returned to rip out the remaining Derbyshire batsmen, and although Stephen Fleming and Jason Gallian departed cheaply in reply, Wagh and Samit Patel tucked into some wayward bowling from the Derbyshire attack to race along at a run-rate of more than five an over.

Wagh got two lives when he edged consecutive balls from Graham Wagg between wicketkeeper James Pipe and first slip Ant Botha to move from 67 to 75.

But he was dismissive to the rest of the visiting bowlers and reached his hundred off just 105 balls, hitting 17 fours and a six, finishing unbeaten on 123.

Patel also peppered the boundary boards regularly with 12 fours and two sixes in his 89 not out.

Notts had 59 scheduled overs to be bowled when they declared and Shreck picked up two more early wickets to raise hopes of victory.

But with Francis and Mark Footitt unable to maintain the pressure, Derbyshire captain Simon Katich and Travis Birt survived unscathed until tea, when the rain returned for the final time.