The Premier Division begins this weekend and the title race could be over before it has even started.Defending champions Southampton Rangers, and perennial title favourites St David’s play each other twice over the next two weeks, and consecutive defeats could bring one club’s season to a grinding halt before the end of May.Rangers will go into the season as clear favourites to retain their title, and the performances of Janeiro Tucker, and new skipper Dion Stovell this past weekend will have done little to disabuse that feeling.Stovell in particular appears to have taken to his new role with relish, and is also realising that the majority of the bowling he will face on a weekly basis in Bermuda is of a lesser standard than what he faced in Dubai in April.“Hopefully we can continue on this season, I think we have a lot to step up to this year,” said Tucker at a Belco Cup prize giving ceremony yesterday. “Everybody is going to be gunning for us this year, hopefully we can handle the pressure and we’ll continue on and play some good cricket.”St David’s though beat Rangers twice in the league last season, the only team to do so, and in the end it may come down to the margin of victory that splits the two sides in the final reckoning.The introduction of a bonus point system that could see teams walk away with as much as 20 points from a convincing victory has changed the whole outlook. If the system had been applied to the Belco Cup, for example, PHC would have come out of the two games trailing Rangers by just five points, despite only winning one game.Rangers suffered because the new system is designed to encourage teams to bat first, and because they didn’t against either Willow Cuts or PHC, they picked up just four bonus points in two games. Two on Saturday, one for bowling Cuts out in less than 50 overs, and one for bowling less than 10 no balls. And another two on Sunday, one for no balls and one for running out two PHC batsmen.Coupled with the 10 points that teams will get for a win in the league this season, and Rangers came away with 24 points from their weekend’s work.PHC though would have picked up 17 points alone from their win over Bailey’s Bay. By batting first, PHC grabbed three bonus points for scoring more than 250 runs (one point), having a 100 run partnership (one point), and batting their full 50 overs (one point).They also picked up four in the field after bowling out Bay in less than 30 overs, which will net teams two bonus points, and sending down fewer than 10 wides and 10 no balls. Combined with the two bonus points they picked up in the defeat against Rangers, for batting their 50 overs, and only bowling three no balls, and PHC would have come out of the weekend with 19 points in total.PHC’s defeat also highlighted another change this season, with umpires now clamping down on slow over rate. Teams will be punished for tardiness, as Jason Anderson’s side found out to their cost.“A team has 4.2minutes to bowl an over, which is (considered) sufficient time to include the wickets, and also a water break,” said senior Bermuda umpire Roger Dill.“In the event of a prolonged injury, or even a prolonged interruption in the match, then the umpires are entitled to add time on. The time allowed is at the discretion of the umpires, it’s not like every time a guy hits the ball for four the umpire goes ‘oh, that’s two seconds, that’s five seconds’.“We met all the captains and coaches, and all the umpires know how they go about adding time in a particular situation.”