Spalding 2nd (166) lost to Market Deeping 2nd (167-8) by 2 wickets
Leaders Market Deeping 2nd completed a swift South Lincs and Border League double over gutted Spalding Town 2nd after edging a cracking contest on Saturday.
With the sun beating down on a glorious-looking Memorial Field track, Spalding skipper Steve Norris immediately elected to bat first after winning the toss.
However, Town were soon in trouble at 36-4 after Matt Hendry (1), Simon Juckes (1), danger-man Ansar Hussain (2) and 13-year-old George Senior (0) all fell early on.
Having seen wickets fall around him, the confident Mike Kearns (23) did his best to build a foundation for the innings – but when he was run out, Muhammad Imran (0) and Jamie Juckes (5) followed to leave Spalding in dire straits at 40-7.
That brought Mohammed Tuyyub (42) and Jimmy Clarke (47no) together, as they set about turning the game around.
Clarke dug in, allowing Tuyyub to punish the bad balls as the pair took the score past 100.
Joe Pearson (1-49) eventually got Tuyyub, but Norris (12) and Chris Klompas (8) helped Clarke take Spalding to a respectable 166.
Deeping reached 34 in reply before Jamie Juckes trapped both Sam Pateman (17) and Ryan Hyman (0) LBW in quick succession.
Spin guru Hussain (3-29) had immediate success to get Nick Andrews (20) LBW to leave the away side on 62, only for Richard Witt (35) and Sam Malton (48) to take them into three figures.
Town came back into it when Hussain got rid of Witt and Connor Gillett (5) in quick succession to leave the game in the balance with 15 overs to go.
With runs coming slowly off the bowling of Hendry and Clarke, Deeping then needed 20 in the last three overs.
Amazingly, Hendry took the catch of the season to see Matt Rose (11) sent back to the pavilion – and in the same over Clarke took a return catch off his bowling to get rid of Malton.
However, with six needed off the last over Andrews hit the penultimate ball to the boundary to see Deeping home with just two wickets to spare.
Skipper Norris said: “I could only dream at 40-7 of getting so close to victory – but when you get to 166 thanks to great batting from Tayyub and Jim you are pretty gutted.
“Ansar and Jim also had starring roles with the ball as well. We need to bounce back at Billingborough 2nd on Saturday.”
