Peel & St John’s clinched the Premier League cricket title despite losing by 66 runs to nearest challengers Crosby on Saturday.

The six bonus points that they picked up – three for getting six Crosby wickets and three for exceeding a score of 150 - were enough to get them over the line before the final match of the season.

After PSJ won the toss and put Crosby into bat, the latter’s opening partnership of 62 between wicket keeper Carl Hartmann and Jamie Brown got them off to a steady start. But the innings lost momentum after that and at one point Crosby were struggling at 74-4.

It took an explosive inning of 70 not out from only 34 balls from Chris Langford, going in at number eight, part of a century partnership for the seventh wicket with Keane Brentley who hit an unbeaten half-century, to take Crosby to a meaningful score of 233 from their 40 overs.

Peel were never in the hunt and the early wicket of Eddie Beard, who was run out by Joe Humphrey for four runs, set the tone as wickets fell consistently without any batsman establishing themselves.

The innings was wrapped up by Sam Bowers whose six-over spell saw him pick up four wickets for 34 runs as Peel were eventually all out for 167 which was 67 runs short of the target.

There was a closer match at King William’s College as Valkyres hosted Ramsey. The northerners chose to bat first and were soon in trouble, losing the first four wickets with only 49 on the board.

Luke Ward’s 66 made the score respectable, but Abdul Khan wrapped up the innings with four wickets as Ramsey limped to 147 all out.

A second-wicket partnership of 58 for Valkyres between Shahid Rafique and Wasim Khan made inroads into the target and Muhammad Salman’s 31 inched them closer before they eventually eclipsed Ramsey’s score with three wickets to spare and moved above them in the league with only one match remaining.

The Division One title was determined over a month ago, with runaway leaders Finch Hill dominating the league and remaining unbeaten throughout the season.

Fraser Clarke picked up six wickets in their away match at Ramsey before Lucy Barnett and Indrakumar Gandu’s partnership of 88 for the second wicket took them to a nine-wicket win.

In the division’s other game, Cronkbourne enjoyed an eight-wicket win against Crosby after Joel Williams picked up four wickets as Crosby were all out for 78. Cronkbourne reached the target in only 14 overs.

The Osbourn family dominated Castletown’s Division Two clash against Finch Hill. Father and son Paul and James put on 37 for the opening wicket, with Paul eventually going on to make 90 as Finch Hill were set a target of 211.

It was then over to James’s twin brother Will who bowled a remarkable spell of four overs, picking up five wickets for only four runs which included four wickets in four balls in the 13th over – all of which were clean bowled.

James wasn’t going to be left out of the bowling honours and he also picked up a brace of wickets in Castletown’s 157-run win.

In the other game in Division Two, Cronkbourne thirds beat Peel’s second team by six wickets.