Peel and St John’s are now the clear favourites to win the Isle of Man Premiership. With just four games left, the Saints have a commanding 25 points lead at the top of the table. However, they face a tough fixture on Saturday when they play a resurgent Castletown.

In their match earlier in the season, the Town lost by 129 runs as their opponents ran up 289 from their 40 overs. Chris Hawke smashed a century, Nick While made 62 and Nick Hawke 56. In reply Jack Newbery had an impressive 57, but Castletown were dismissed for 160. Since then the Town have won four games on the trot and moved into third place in the league. There is clearly a confidence in the side which could spell trouble for the Saints. Tom Burrows has scored 489 runs and taken 10 wickets, Dan Laughlin has hit 423 runs while Garreth Roome’s record is 220 runs and 13 wickets.

A win here for Peel and St John’s would almost give them the title. Their last two games have been close with victory by 14 runs and three wickets. After Saturday their remaining fixtures are against teams in the bottom half of the table and should provide comfortable wins.

Second placed Cronkbourne are expected to show no mercy when they visit Ramsey. The Tromode side hammered the Schools Eleven last week and are determined to keep in touch with the leaders. The Ramsey bowlers will need to be at their best against the powerful Tromode batting. In their last match Jaco Jansen hit 100 and Carl Mellors was only two short of a century when the overs ran out. The Douglas side know that anything less than all 20 points for a win would crush any lingering title hopes.

One of the mysteries of this season is why are Crosby near the bottom of the table. The Marown side put in a spirited performance last week at Mullen-e-Cloie and, at one stage, they were in with a good chance of beating the Saints. The narrow defeat by only three wickets shows what the side can achieve. Expect a climb back up the table to start on Saturday when they are at home to the Schools Eleven. However, first they must quickly dismiss the Scholar’s prolific opening pair of Eddie Beard and George Burrows. Beard has scored 548 runs this year and, incredibly, Burrows needs only 16 more runs to hit the one thousand mark. Crosby beware!