ABBEY International beat Old Victorians by four wickets last night to win the NatWest Indoor 6-a-side League Division I title.

At Fort Regent, OVs never recovered from losing Tom Minty and Ward Jenner in the first over but, with Bobby Minty scoring an undefeated 37 and Chris Jones 22, OVs posted a respectable 102 all out.

Ian Crocker did the damage with the ball, taking three wickets for 30 runs.

Abbey, who shared the title last year, won it outright last night, for the third time in five years.

They cruised through their innings.

Ryan Driver and Ian Crocker being undefeated on 30 and 25 runs, respectively, giving Abbey a solid foundation to reach their winning target in the eleventh over.

Abbey skipper Peter Blackburn said: ‘It was a reasonably comfortable win.

We got off to a fine start with a run out and wicket in the first over and OVs did not get a total that was going to challenge us.

‘We all bowled well and then having two opening batsmen back in the hut retiring with 50-odd runs on the board is the best possible platform you can have.

‘We’ve also been consistent this season, using just seven players in ten matches.

What we need now is to improve the standard.

This season a few games have been disappointing.

It would be great to see clubs like Sporting Club and Caesareans playing again to raise the bar again.’ OVs captain Ward Jenner said: ‘We got caught cold by a couple of good deliveries from Ian Crocker and although Bobby Minty batted well to give us a reasonable total it was not enough.

‘We too bowled well but Abbey batted sensibly and took no risks.

Each side had five of their six players who form part of the Island squad and I think they just had the edge on youth! ‘I understand why summer players don’t play in the indoor league because they are quite different games.

There is also a big workload in the summer with nets as well as games and players look to have a rest over the winter.’ Division II champions JCA Seniors completed their programme with a 24-run victory against Walkovers.

The Seniors totalled 130 without loss after unbeaten knocks by Dave Gorman (25), John Taylor (27), Mark Saralis (26) and Mick Higgitt (21).

Peter Glennon took three wickets for 19 runs as Walkovers were all out for 106.

Paul Roach scored 40 runs and Kevin English 21.

The average age of the Seniors’ team is 53 with 70-year-old Vernon Hansen still turning his arm over regularly.

JJCA I defeated Springfield by three runs.

A low-scoring match resulted in JJCA I being out for 37 with Lee Graveson and Josh Farrow taking two wickets each for six and 17 runs respectively.

Tom Wherry, fresh from his football heroics in the Junior Muratti, then took three wickets for 11 runs as Springfield collapsed to 34 all out.

NatWest senior manager Dave Gumbrell presented the winners with their respective trophies .