However, the final spot in the finals and the finishing order behind Norths, who clinched top spot by beating Western Suburbs on Saturday, will not be decided until the final ball is bowled next Saturday.

Raymond Terrace, Western Suburbs, Eastern Suburbs and Thornton are still in the hunt for the fourth spot in the finals.

Thornton kept their finals hopes alive with a one-wicket victory against Terrace with just seven balls remaining.

It leaves Terrace needing to beat City United to guarantee a place in the finals, however, they can still sneak through with a loss and favourable results in other games.

Thornton, one of the form teams in the second half of the season, must beat Norths to be any chance of finals action after being denied full points in the previous week’s abandoned game when they were firmly on top of Easts

Easts moved up to fourth after beating Kurri Weston but have the bye next week and must rely on other results falling their way.

Reigning premiers Western Suburbs can grab the final spot if they defeat Kurri Weston.

A happy Norths skipper Michael Wilson said it was great to secure the minor premiership and reward for a consistent effort by his team throughout the year.

“We have had two aberrations, the loss first up to Easts and the loss to City United last week. Other than that we have had a great year with every player putting in at various stages of each game,” Wilson said.

“Wests got off a flyer. They were 2/102 after 12 overs, but Tim Prescott and Ben Sayers bowled terrifically and we caught all our catches to have them out for 155.

“Tim got 3-30 and Ben got 3-28. They bowled their 10 overs each straight through and really put the squeeze on the Wests batsmen forcing them into errors.

“We made a good start in our chase. Lincoln Mills got 14 and I managed 29 before I was caught. Will Fort was again terrific for us scoring 64 not out with Geoff Cooke also not out on 36 to get us home.

Wilson said the club was thrilled that it would have teams playing finals in all five grades and had a strong chance of securing the club championship as well as the minor premiership.

“We can’t move from top so our focus is just on winning next week and taking good form into the finals,” he said.

Raymond Terrace skipper Nick Savage said given the closeness of the competition it wasn’t surprising that the teams in the finals would not be decided after the final round.

“We were pretty devastated on Saturday, because we heard Wests had won and that would have put us out.

“It was the third close game we had lost. We bowled the last 10 overs in rain so it was pretty difficult.

“Credit to Thornton though, when we got the ninth wicket they needed eight runs from three overs and got them with seven balls to spare.

“Thankfully we’re still in the hunt. If we beat City we are in. If we lose depending on results in the other games it could end up with three teams on 34 points and be decided on run quotient.”

East skipper Andrew Vickery said regardless of results next week it was great to finish the year with a win and reward for a terrific turn in their fortunes this season.