The top six and bottom four in the Premier League have been decided with a match to spare before the teams split for the second half of the season.

Civil Service North’s victory over Carrickfergus condemned the bottom four to a relegation scrap and confirmed the Stormont side’s place in the top six where only four points (one win) separate them with six matches remaining.

CSN completed an impressive chase, reaching their victory target of 243 with more than eight overs to spare with Marc Ellison seeing his side home with an undefeated 75, having earlier shared a second wicket stand of 81 with top scorer Ryan Hunter (91). The game's highest, though, was by Michael Rippon who finished 107 not out for Carrickfergus after putting on an unbeaten 156 with captain CJ van der Walt for the fifth wicket.

Waringstown lost their share of the lead when they went down by 45 runs to Instonians despite back to back half centuries by Pat Botha and Greg Thompson. They added 101 for the fifth wicket but the last five wickets fell for 36 to leave the Shaw’s Bridge side in a three-way tie at the top with CIYMS and Lisburn.

CI beat Cliftonville Academy by 114 runs, with Jason van der Merwe again leading the way, his 84 included seven fours and five sixes as they comfortably defended their total of 285 for eight.

Lisburn did not have quite so easy but still had 28 runs to spare in another rain-affected match in Belfast, against Woodvale who are propping up the table. Nigel Jones and Adam Berry both hit half-centuries for the defending champions and Mark Berry and Matthew Humphreys then shared seven wickets.

North Down were the quickest winners of the day with new professional Dale Phillips taking three cheap scalps as Derriaghy were bowled out for 121. The New Zealander then saw his side home in partnership with Alistair Shields who finished 62 not out.