Chapchai Nirat of Thailand chipped in for an eagle to move to the top of the leaderboard at the Barclays Singapore Open before darkness brought third round play to an early end.
The 25-year-old from Bangkok began the third round on four under, two strokes adrift of co-leaders Simon Dyson and Ernie Els.
He made birdies on the third and fourth but was still a shot adrift of Dyson and Singapore's Lam Chih Bing after nine holes at Sentosa Golf Club's Serapong course.
But the Thai nailed a 10-foot birdie at the 10th to make it a three-way tie for the lead before jumping two shots in front with his eagle on the 11th when he chipped in with a pitching wedge from 118 yards.
Chapchai went on to par the 12th when play was halted, leaving him on five under for the day and nine under overall.
Dyson, Lam and Thomas Bjorn were tied for second on seven under at the time of the stoppage.
Dyson was six under at the start of play and picked up a shot with a birdie on the fourth while parring all of the other 10 holes he played.
"My game feels good. I'm playing all right," said the Englishman, who is feeling the effects of fatigue after playing at the Hassan II Golf Trophy in Morocco last week.
"I normally like to attack stuff but I'm holding back a bit as I'm tired.
"I'm right in it though. Bogey free yesterday and bogey free today which is a good thing.
"I'm playing a bit conservative but hopefully I'll get a good night's sleep and come out blazing tomorrow."
Lam was tied with Chapchai on four under at the start of the round and made birdies on the second and fourth before holing his third of the day with a four-footer on the ninth. He was facing a 15-foot putt for par on the 12th when play ended.
"It has been a long day," said the Singaporean, who played 13 holes to complete his second round in the morning.
"I hit the ball pretty well all day but the last holes got pretty hard to play. There was hardly any light and I was surprised they kept us out there for so long.
"All in all it was quite a steady round. If I can keep it going for another round and a half that would be good."
Bjorn started on three under and dropped a shot on the fourth before making birdies at five of his next nine holes to move to seven under after 12.
"I got off to a rocky start but after four I played some pretty good stuff," said the Dane.
"I am just trying to get myself in there with a chance to win. I have not played well for a while and it is nice to get that feeling that I have a chance again."
World number five Padraig Harrington held the clubhouse lead after shooting a 66 in the third round to improve to five under.
He was joined on that score by world number three Phil Mickelson (four under through 14), Ernie Els (one over through 11), Rory McIlroy (one under through 11) and Jeev Milkha Singh (four under through 14).
Although there were no stoppages today, long weather delays on the first two days meant that third round play only began in the afternoon with only 27 of the 72 players who made the cut able to complete their rounds.
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