The Manx Premier League starts on Saturday with the three T20 sides playing off at Mullen-e-Cloie. The teams are Glashtyns, Bugganes and last year’s champions, the Manannans.

Captains Ollie Webster, Ryan Windell and Mark Williams, took part in an auction to decide the other 14 members of their squad. Over 180 names were considered and each skipper began with a nominal kitty of ?100,000.

They soon discovered the challenges an auction can bring when someone else wants the same player! Bidding started quietly, but took off when all three captains wanted Danny Kniveton, who was finally bought by Manannans for ?11,200.

The battles continued with Akkie van den Berg costing ?12,000 but then the bidding became really frantic for Dan Hawke. He was hunted by all the teams, but finally went to Glashtyns for a massive ?26,000.

It was also realised that some real value signings were still available and the dangerous Adam Killey was snapped up for just ?3,000. The three skippers said how much they enjoyed the bidding experience and are looking forward to the first round of fixtures.

These go ahead this Saturday at Mullen-e-Cloie. The matches start at 10-30am, 1-30pm and 4-30pm.

The squads are:-

Manannans – Mark Williams (capt), Greg Hawke, Danny Kniveton, Adam McCauley, Akkie van den Berg, Sam Kebbell, John Short, Jack Newberry, Kevin Kniveton, Steve Slack, Adam Killey, Sam Riordan, George Burrows, Carl Wagstaffe.

Glashtyns – Ollie Webster (capt), Nick Hawke, Phil Littlejohns, Alex Stokoe, Shaun Kelly, Jack Rowlands, Dan Hawke, Kieran Cawte, James Moffatt, Jaco Jansen, Ryan Burns, Will Wood, Seb Aycock, Eddie Beard, Matt Brand.

Bugganes – Ryan Windell (capt), Max Stokoe, Chris Hawke, Chris Langford, Gareth Roome, Peter Lewis, Floris Venter, Sam Mills, Alex Williamson, Bruce Wagstaffe, Chris Nash, Ali Ansari, Nick Wild, Zubair Siddiqi, Nathan Knights.