Spalding’s third win of the Lincolnshire Board Premier League season proved an important one on a day of shocks.
Every away team won, and all bar one of them was playing a team higher in the table.
It meant that Spalding kept pace with all the teams around them, even though they did not climb any places after beating Sleaford.
Ollie Dring won the toss and elected to bat but might have regretted that decision when he lost opening partner Chris Dring for a first-ball duck and followed soon after himself to leave the visitors rocking on 5/2.
Step forward Barnaby Dring (101) and Josh Lawrence (53), who put on 117 for the third-wicket, with Divyeash Vaseeharan (36) helping take the score on to 186/3 as Spalding reached a decent 257/7 from their 50 overs.
Sleaford made a solid start but Nilantha Atapattu removed both openers on his way to a ‘five-fer’ and match-winning figures of 5-42.
The game looked over at 109/9 but a last-wicket stand of 47 between Ben Lambert (30no) and Kieran Harbron (27) raised home hopes before Jamie Coles snapped up Harbron off Harsh Bhandari to leave Sleaford all out for 156 in the 33rd over.
There were also celebrations back in Spalding, where the second XI recorded their first win of the season at the fifth time of asking in Division Two of the South Lincs Border League.
Thomas Decamps also won the toss against Royal Boston and decided to bat but again both openers went cheaply.
It needed a solid middle-order stand from Jon Manton (54) and Jay White (72no) to lead the recovery, with Elliot Humphreys (24) and Jack Sawyer (18) chipping in to reach 196/7 from their 45 overs.
The visiting openers continued the day’s theme by scoring just seven between them but Vishnu Babu (41), Manoj Kesavan (36) and Sajo George (32no) threatened to upset home hopes before Spalding got the upper hand to rattle through the lower order, leaving the Boston team all out for 149.
Jay (3-27) and Josh White (3-38) were the main wicket-takers with Macey Andrews (2-11) and Phil Lewis (2-27) chipping in with a brace each.
