Valkyres welcomed Peel and St John’s (PSJ) to Mullen-e-Cloie on Saturday in Isle of Man Cricket Association’s Premier League.

Valkyres won the toss and decided to field, while PSJ’s skipper Ollie Webster wanted to rest his dodgy back and give some of the batsmen some extra practice for their Tinker Cup final next weekend.

But the Saints were soon in trouble when firstly Alex Williamson was out LBW and then Pete Lewis was caughtby a brilliant catch by from keeper Ramasubbareddy Bojiireddy (Subbu) off the bowling of Santhosh Nouduri.

Juan Bellando stayed at the crease for a defiant 32 but nobody around him could withstand the pressure of the Valkyres bowling and PSJ folded with the score on 76.

All done and dusted you might say, but as one spectator commented, you certainly get your money’s worth watching Valkyres.

Peel and St John’s attacked with a triumvirate of pace bowling through Brendan Bennett, Ben Haworth and Kieran Cawte. Bennett was the pick of the bowlers coming in off his long run and Valkyres were reeling as wickets fell for very few runs.

Captain Shahid Rafique was out for a golden duck, square cutting to backward off point, while Bennett continued to take wickets, although he was a bit shocked when his skipper demanded that he continue to bowl after a stint of six overs.

Valkyres were 57 for 7 but some batting sense finally arrived with Subbu and Nouduri at the crease and Valkyres edged to victory by two wickets. Bennett ended with figures of 5 for 20 from his eight overs.

Finch Hill and the Development XI moved their game to Crosby as a result of the very long grass at their Ballafletcher ground.

Finch Hill decided to have a bat but their dominant force with the bat, George Burrows, was given out third ball LBW and Finch Hill were in trouble.

Further wickets fell to the deadly partnership of Jacob Butler and Ed Walker, while Matthew Ansell tightened the screw further by bowling six maiden overs in a row and Finch Hill could only edge their way to 56 for 7.

Butler was brought back into the fray to finish off the Finches and he took a further three wickets - he finished with figures of 5 for 14 from 6.1 overs and Finch Hill only had 68 runs in the book.

The Development side opened the batting with Nathan Knights and Luke Ward, with the latter unlucky to edge a ball onto his stumps for two but that brought Carl Hartmann in.

He batted with confidence and the two batsmen were soon running well between the wickets. This allowed Knights to set about the Finch Hill bowling and the total was soon reached in the 10th over as Knights finished with a tally of 31 when he was bowled and Hartmann, 30 not out. The Development side had won by eight wickets.

Ramsey Grammar School was the venue for Castletown’s visit and southern captain Dan Laughlin decided to bat as he partnered Sam Barnett at the top of the batting order.

The pair gave the visitors a decent start and 71 runs were on the board before Barnett was out for 13 caught by Grant Atchison off the bowling of Luke Ward.

Laughlin was ably assisted by Michael Haywood and a further 43 runs were added before Laughlin fell for 72. The pace of run-scoring dipped slightly because of some good bowling by Brandon Atchinson who took three wickets and Castletown finished with a score of 169 for 8.

Ramsey’s Grant Atchison was out first ball, bowled by Joshua Williams-Stewart, and the northerners got into further trouble when Ward followed him to the pavilion and the score was only seven.

Garreth Roome continued to pile on the pressure, taking three wickets for 13 runs in an eight-over spell, but Castletown must have then relaxed, thinking the job was done and Ramsey rallied from a low of 96 for 7.

Ramsey’s tail wagged as Jon Gower-Jackson, Braden Birchall and George Harrison took the game to Castletown and Birchall finished with a top score of 48 and Harrison 26. However, Castletown brought on Jeff Butler and he quickly snuffed out the Ramsey revival with three quick wickets. Ramsey finished on 153, losing by 16 runs.

Cronkbourne were the visitors to the Crosby Memorial Playing Fields on Saturday and the home side’s Chris Langford took a couple of wickets early on, but Cronkbourne pushed on until they lost the important wicket of Nathan Knights with the score at 61.

Ben Johnston was out for 37 as Toby Poole-Wilson took the first of his three wickets and Cronkbourne staggered to a score of 110 for 7.

Matthew Ansell came to the crease and proceeded to dig them out of the hole, scoring a quickfire 52 from 18 balls. Four sixes were included in that total and Cronkbourne progressed to 172 before Crosby’s Ed Walker intervened to stop the mayhem with two wickets in quick succession. Cronkbourne finished with 181 runs on the board.

Crosby also lost early wickets for few runs and good bowling by Ben Johnston and Fraser Clarke ensured that Crosby continued to struggle to amass many runs. Johnston’s three victims and Clarke’s two meant that wickets continued to fall.

Only one further batsman needed to be removed and Crosby were 66 runs behind the Cronkbourne score but the tail-enders, Ed Walker and Toby Poole-Wilson, kept battling away. Cronkbourne struggled to stem the flow of runs and Crosby edged closer to a dramatic win.

Walker was top scorer with 40 runs and he looked to score an important four or two to make the last over interesting, but he was bowled by Stuart Mellors and Cronkbourne won by 11 runs.

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