A sparkling century by Garreth Roome put Castletown on the road to victory in the Standard Bank Premiership on Saturday. The southern club earned their first points of the season when they beat Crosby by 158 runs.

Put into bat, the Town raced away with aggressive hitting by Roome and fellow opener John Short. They had 72 on the board in twelve overs when Short was bowled by Chris Shimmin for 32.

Then came a stand of 112 runs between Mark Williams and Roome who was in great form and dominated play. He went to his century with a pull for four and had reached 106 before being bowled by a Jacob Hicklin “special”. Williams departed for an excellent 69, just before the innings closed on 268 for four after forty overs.

In reply Crosby went after the runs with openers Ross Berry and Kevin Kniveton quickly into their stride. The total had reached 44 when that man Roome bowled Berry for 20.

Danny Kniveton joined his brother and, at 82 for 1, the game was in the balance. Enter Richard Jackson bowling down from the Hango Hill end and in one over he destroyed Crosby’s hopes. He first had Danny Kniveton lbw for 10 and a few balls later bowled Kevin for 37.

Jack Rowlands tried to rally the Marown middle-order, but Jackson bowled him for ten. The tail then collapsed to Gareth Morris who ended with four wickets for just six runs.

This was a fine performance by Castletown and should give them confidence to start climbing back up the Premiership. Their problem is that Ramsey are now firmly fixed at the top after winning their third match in a row.

The northern club overcame the challenge of Valkyres with a powerful nine wicket victory. The Douglas club went in first, but their batsmen were stunned by the strong bowling line-up of their opponents.

Will Warwick top scored with 17 and Abdul Khan made 15, but nothing could stop the Ramsey attack. Scott Weaver took 3 -10 and there were two wickets each for Chris McConnell and Shaun Kelly.

Valkyres were dismissed for 94 and, despite Warwick taking an early wicket, couldn’t stop Marc Pons-Burt leading the way to a convincing win. He cracked an unbeaten 44 to keep the club in the number one spot in the league.

Standard Bank Premiership
Castletown 268 for 4 (Garreth Roome 106, Mark Williams 69 : Danny Kniveton 1 -4, Jacob Hicklin 1 43, Chris Shimmin 1 -43); Crosby 130 (Kevin Kniveton 37, Ross Berry 20 : Gareth Morris 4 -6, Richard Jackson 3 -33). Castletown won by 138 runs.
Valkyres 94 (Will Warwick 17, Abdul Khan 15 : Scott Weaver 3 -10, Chris McConnell 2 -10); Ramsey 95 for 1 (Marc Pons-Burt 44no, Eddie Cleator 13 : Will Warwick 1 -31). Ramsey won by nine wickets.
St John’s v Cronkbourne : Match conceded - Cronkbourne win.

Western Challenge
St John’s B 98 for 5 (Paul Nicholson 28no, Adrian Jackson 16 : Colin Gilbert 3 -14); Peel C 95 (Grant Elbourne 33, R Mooney 21 : Paul Nicholson 3 -15, A Jackson 3 -18). St John’s won by three runs.