Dramatic collapses by Sandys Sports Club and Pembroke United handed West Indian Association the league title for the second time in three seasons in Sunday's low-scoring but compelling final round of games.

Favourites Sandys needed only a draw at the Royal Naval Field, where rain held up play for more than half an hour, to retain the title they won last season.

But resurgent Forties -- one-run winners over WIA the previous Sunday -- wrecked their title hopes, claiming the last five wickets for 19 runs to snatch victory by four runs.

At rain-free Garrison Field, where both teams played one short, Pembroke United tumbled to a 12-run defeat after losing their final four wickets for 14 runs in another nail-biting finish, 60-year-old pace bowler George Rock snapping up five for 34 in 13 overs to help clinch victory.

WIA's win gave them the title by the narrow margin of one and a half points over Sandys with Forties third 25 points behind and Pembroke last.

Evergreen Rock claimed four for 24 in his opening 11-over spell to leave Pembroke reeling at 46 for five in pursuit of WIA's modest 127 -- highlighted by a half century from Andy Boyce -- but a sixth-wicket stand of 55 between George Fisher and Carl Cherrington (20) carried their side to the brink of victory.

With their title hopes slipping away, acting skipper Jerry Callender turned to slow bowler Huron Vidal and the move paid off as Vidal, playing his first game of the season, caught and bowled Fisher whose 44 contained five fours.

Callender finished with three for 41 from 15.1 overs.

Boyce cracked one six and eight fours as he plundered 65 but he was given little support by his colleagues as WIA lost their last five wickets for 16 runs after being sent in.

Fisher (three for 16), Mike Young (three for 22) and Junior Lindo, with two for 27, were the pick of the Pembroke attack.

Another veteran player -- 52-year-old Frankie Bento -- had a rewarding day for Sandys in only his second game of the season, picking up three for 38 from 16 consecutive overs and then hoisting two sixes over long leg and hitting two other boundaries in an innings of 21.

But he couldn't win the day for the West Enders whose hopes were dealt a severe blow when leading run-getter Terry Ward was out first ball -- his third failure against Forties this season following scores of 16 and eight.

Opener Tim Bridges (44) gave Forties a flying start after they were sent in by Sandys, whose skipper Terry Corday and allrounder Ray DeSilva were away on holiday, and 41 runs came in the first eight overs for the loss of Grant Tomkins, superbly caught in the gully by Anthony Zuill.

Despite being hit over the right eye trying to pull Terence Corday, Bridges took his revenge on the fast bowler by twice hooking him for six -- one putting a dent in a woman motorist's car while she was getting petrol at the station across the road.

Corday conceded 22 runs from four overs but Bento and slow-medium left-arm bowler David DeSilva put the brake on the scoring as Forties slumped from 62 for two to 90 for six before being dismissed in the penultimate over for 126, Ward picking up three for 12 -- including Mark Melvin for 23 -- and Blake West chipping in with two for 16.

Bento added the wickets of skipper Gordon Campbell and Andrew Paynter to his earlier dismissal of Tomkins while DeSilva (two for 26 from 10 overs) uprooted Bridges' off stump.

Medium pacer Gladwin Ingham (two for 19) struck back for Forties, bowling Stephen West for a duck and then having Ward smartly caught, leaving Sandys reeling at three for two.

Acting skipper Michael Corday (29) and DeSilva (21) added 46 for the third wicket and although Paynter picked up two for 35, Sandys pushed the total past 100 -- Troy Berkeley smashing three sixes in his 19 -- with only five wickets down and they seemed to have the title at their mercy.

But Campbell, with two for five in nine overs, six of them maidens, and Jim Walters, who took three for 13, triggered a collapse and Sandys' fate was sealed in the fading light when last pair Blake West and Graveney Bannister went for an impossible second run and West was run out by yards as Melvin's throw came in from third man.