Every effort will be made at Dean Park this morning to try to avoid a bowl-out if the weather again creates havoc with Yorkshire's Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy second-round tie with Dorset.

Further heavy rain at lunchtime yesterday on an already sodden ground put paid to any chances of the game getting started and with no improvement in the forecast, the chances of a positive result today are slim.

A stalemate could result in a bowl-out but the players on both sides and the umpires want to avoid such an unsatisfactory outcome if at all possible.

Yorkshire yesterday made it known that, if necessary, they would be prepared to play the game either tomorrow or Saturday, or even next Monday or Tuesday, if the ECB and their opponents were agreeable.

The game need not necessarily take place in Bournemouth and Yorkshire are contacting Somerset to see if it could be played at Taunton early next week.

This would be convenient for Yorkshire, who are due to play Somerset at the venue on Sunday in the totesport League.

The problem there, however, is that the ground has already taken such a pounding from the weather that Yorkshire have already been informed that they cannot have practice nets on Saturday.

The main obstacle which Dorset need to clear is arranging time off work for their players and this could rule out tomorrow because it is too short notice.

If a new date can be agreed, the umpires need to be told before any toss takes place today, otherwise a bowl-out would have to go ahead if there turned out to be insufficient time to get a positive result.

Umpire Jeff Evans, who is officiating with Allan Jones, said other venues had been explored yesterday to see if the match could be switched, but none had proved to be any drier than Dean Park.

"We contacted Hampshire's headquarters at the Rose Bowl and several other local grounds but conditions were very similar," said Evans.

"The very last thing that anyone wants is to have to resort to a bowl-out and we are trying to find a way round the problem but it may come to that if nothing else is possible."

Not only would it be humiliating for Yorkshire to lose a bowl-out to their Minor County opponents - who got through to the present round by beating Buckinghamshire 4-1 in similar circumstances - but it would end their chances of financially lucrative matches later in the competition.