Carlisle clinched their first top-flight title in 37 years with a comprehensive nine-wicket win against Workington at Edenside.

Their rivals, Furness, couldn’t do anything about it as their game at Keswick was washed out and with two games left to play, can’t catch the city side.

Carlisle won the First Division championship in 2016 but hadn’t won the main senior league in the county since 1982.

Carlisle had gone into the game knowing victory would make them champions after news came through of the Furness abandonment and the subsequent victory sparked wild celebrations.

Home skipper Marc Brown had no hesitation in asking Workington to bat first, trusting his three leading seamers Mike Slack, Fraser Conn and teenager Henry Walker to once again make early inroads.

Between them, they’ve picked up a decisive 128 wickets in all competitions this season, and once again combined to reduce Workington to 54-5.

Walker made the breakthrough, but it was an inspirational return catch taken low down by Conn, who finished with 3-17, that gave the home side momentum.

Workington rallied with a sixth-wicket partnership of 55 between Callum Sutton and Matthew Lowden.

Sutton’s excellent half-century gave the visitors hope but a flurry of late wickets left Workington 120 all out.

In response, Lowden sent a few nerves through the home dressing room when he had Slack caught behind with the score just eight.

But between them, Ben Davidson and Brown navigated a difficult early period to set the home team on course for victory.

Davidson compiled a typically stubborn and unbeaten 41, while Brown was more aggressive, finishing 70 not out.

It was Brown who punched the winning runs through mid-wicket, completing a four year plan he set out when returning to the club four years ago.

“I knew it was going to take time to build a side capable of challenging the best teams in this division,” he said.

“But this is a very special moment and so many people have put so much effort into turning this club into genuine title challengers.

“We’re going to enjoy our success, of course, but long term we want to build on this and come back as strong next year.

“Our professional Mike Slack has been unbelievable, scoring nearly 600 runs so far and taking more than 50 wickets, and our other seamers have been brilliant, giving us the edge in so many games.”

Cockermouth, the 2018 champions, look like finishing third this time. They got in some cricket at Lindal but rain washed out play after 41.2 overs.

By then, Cockermouth had amassed an impressive 204-3 led by skipper Alex Grainger (89no), Marcus Stables (60) and Matthew Sempill (43).

Cleator were also in the runs against Wigton but were able to go on and record a handsome victory.

Darren Clark (71), professional Supethala Jayathilake (70) and Doug Hughes (48) saw Cleator reach 285-5 in their 50 overs.

Wigton were dismissed for 57 in 75 minutes as David Blackwell (6-31) and Clark (4-20) shared the bowling. Johnathan Reed (29) offered the only resistance.

At the bottom of the table, Egremont had hoped to record their first win in the League when they took on local rivals Whitehaven at Gillfoot. Their only win of the season had been against Whitehaven in the Higson Cup.

But Whitehaven were in no mood to lose local bragging rights in this one and scored a comfortable eight-wicket win.

Egremont were bowled out for 67 with skipper Jonathan Stewart taking 5-11. Coady Scott top-scored for Egremont with 21 not out.

A loss of play through rain meant Whitehaven had a revised target of 59 from 32 overs but they didn’t hang about.

They got to 59-2 off only 14.2 overs with Stephen Holliday (18) top-scoring. Scott bowled well taking 2-15 off 7.2 overs.

In the other game Millom made 233-7 in 49 overs and because of a rain stoppage Dalton had a revised target of 201 in 37 overs.

But they were bowled-out for 173 in 33.3 overs.

Premier Division - Two games to play

P W T L Pts

Carlisle 20 14 0 1 164

Furness 20 12 0 3 143

Cockermouth 19 11 0 4 132

Workington 20 9 0 7 119

Cleator 19 8 0 7 108

Keswick 20 7 0 7 107

Millom 20 7 0 9 101

Dalton 20 6 0 10 100

Lindal 19 6 0 8 94

Whitehaven 20 6 0 9 92

Wigton 19 6 0 10 83

Egremont 20 0 0 17 27