Relentless Spalding Town made it seven wins on the spin on Saturday as they saw off Stamford Town by 92 runs to go 28 points clear at the top of the South Lincs and Border League Premier Division.
On a rain-hit day, Town were inserted into bat by their hosts – and didn’t quite manage to replicate their recent explosive form on what was a tough wicket.
However, another half-century from Josh Newton (62) and solid contributions from Ben Smith (33 not out), Warren Nel (23) and Hafiz Majeed (20) steered Rob Ambrose’s side to a very solid score of 170-5 from their 45 overs.
Steve Armstrong (4-30) was the stand-out Stamford bowler, taking the key wickets of Newton and Majeed while also snaring young duo Jimmy Hook (4) and David Thomas (13).
That proved more than enough, as Spalding managed to rip through the Stamford batting line up in just 32.5 overs.
Simon Lem (28) and Alex Birch (11) were the only home players to manage double figures thanks to fine spells from Majeed (4-22), Cameron Roy (3-22), Jack Barratt (2-16) and Dan Milgate (1-14).
That was good enough for 18 match points for Town, who bagged five bowling points and three batting points.
Spalding skipper Ambrose felt his side put in a top all-round display – and felt their 170 was more like 250 on the tricky pitch.
He said: “To be honest, I think we did well to have a game on. They were making noises in the morning about it being off.
“Having lost the toss on a tough wicket it was a tougher prospect than in recent weeks. But I thought we batted superbly well – the 170 felt more like 250 and Josh’s 62 was like a ton.
“The lads bowled and fielded superbly well too. You could see how strong our score was when they batted.
“We had to graft away, but in the end we did a proper all round job on them.
“Stamford is always a hard match, so we’re pleased to get another win on the board.”
