LAST weekend's washout may have denied Ockbroook & Borrowash the Beechwood Derbyshire Premier league title – but it ensured that Matt Lineker was crowned the Premier League Player of the Year.

Lineker hit 1,305 runs, with eight 50s and four centuries, and averaged 65.25 in league and cup matches in his first season opening the batting with Ockbrook, after moving from his boyhood club, Alfreton.

The Player of the Year award, conceived by Ockbrook's former Derbyshire all-rounder Matt Cassar and sponsored by Cassar's company, Derby Mortgage Advisors, sees the umpires at each Premier League game award three points to their man of the match and also two and one points to two other significant performers in the same game.

Lineker raced ahead in the first part of the season but only scored a handful of points later in the season as his team struggled to hold on to their lead at the top of the league. His lead was big enough for him to land the £250 first prize, however, with 23 points.

The prize money for second, £100 and third £50, will be split between the two players who finished joint second in the standings.

Ilkeston Rutland opener Kevin Leatherday scored 1,041 runs at 57.83 in his first Premier League season after a prolific time in the County League, while Spondon all-rounder Joe Ashdown joined him on 17 points in the standings with a man-of-the-match effort on the last weekend when a full programme of matches was allowed by the weather.

Just missing out behind them on 14 points were Ockbrook's Johnny Owen, Quarndon's Mathew Dowman and Anthony Woolley of Alvaston & Boulton.