Long Sutton wasted the chance to climb two places in the South Lincs Border League Championship table with a heavy defeat at Skegness.
A win would have pushed Sutton two places up the table, leapfrogging their hosts in the process but they fell to a 141-run reversal. Chasing Skegness’ 269/5, they were all out for 128 in 29 overs.
Things had started promisingly with Josh Baker (2-67) and Charith Harshana (2-58) reducing the hosts to 25/3 but Norman Brackley (159no) turned things away from the visitors with a 143-ball knock that included four sixes and 21 fours.
Sutton got off to a good start in reply with openers Tim Norris (31) and Jake Burton (19) putting on 60 but 60/0 quickly became 65/4 before Daniel Oldfield (25) and Harshana (22) moved things on to 109/4. However, a tail-end collapse saw Sutton lose their last five wickets for just four runs.
It was even worse for the second team, back at Paradise Field, where they slumped to a 182-run defeat at the hands of Orton Park.
The Peterborough side recovered from 29/2 to 249/2 thanks to Richard Morris (125no) and Connor Parnell (108) on their way to a 45-over total of 261/4.
The home reply failed to make it to the 29th over as they were bowled out for 79. Eranda Munasinghege (11) and Faz Mukhtar (10) were the only batsmen to reach double-figures with extras (24) top-scoring.
Long Sutton Mallards warmed up for this week’s derby encounter at Sutton Colts with a seven-wicket defeat at home to Mid-Norfolk League Kevin Grimmer Division leaders North Runcton.
Opener Eranda Munasinghege (46) helped his side to 71/1 and, when he was caught, Alastair Drohan (45) stepped into the breach. The home total was boosted thanks to an unbroken stand of 26 between Pradeep Indika (19) and Mukhtar (18) as they closed their 40 overs on 193/7.
Opener Ben Newton (93no) proved to be the Runcton match-winner, sharing an opening partnership of 53 with Freddie Gribbin (24) and then an unbroken one of 69 with Jacob Booth (30no) to send his team to a winning 195/3 with more than four overs in hand.