A five-wicket haul from William Naylor saw Long Sutton to an important win over Stamford Town on Saturday.
It was a victory that took Sutton 43 points above the opposition and the Lincs and Border League Premier Division relegation zone.
The home side certainly didn’t have things all their own way at Paradise Park with batsmen from both sides struggling to make an impact.
Sutton elected to bat on winning the toss but lost three early wickets.
Thankfully for them, opener Rajan Sangha provided a cool head with an excellent 39.
He found someone to build a partnership with in Barry Stanway (24).
Other useful contributions came from the middle order in Adam Wright (19), skipper Phil Barnes (16) and Luke Barnes (12), but a 5-11 from 6.2 overs from Stamford’s Brett Bennett skittled the tail.
Sutton were all out for 137 in the 43rd over leaving the bowlers with a job to do to ensure a victory that would have dragged them towards the bottom two.
They stepped up the plate impeccably led by Naylor who took the wickets of five of the top six batsmen, all for single figure scores.
His seven overs yielded just 18 runs.
Stamford’s number seven Phillip Holland (18) and nine Steve Holland (17) provided some resistance, but Dan Oldfield (230) provided important breakthroughs as did Barry Stanway (2-36).
Adam Wright (1-1) took just four balls of his spell to wrap up the win as Stamford were all out for 85 in just he 23rd over, Sutton winning by 52 runs.
p Long Sutton’s Sunday XI moved to the top of the Rutland Cricket League Division Three East on Sunday with a thrashing of Hampton.
Sutton took just over 40 overs to wrap up an impressive win and leapfrog Werrington into pole position in the division after bowling the visitors to Paradise Field out for just 85.
William Naylor made it seven wickets for the weekend by claiming 3-22 from his seven overs, but Callum John was the top performer with the ball on this afternoon claiming 4-28 from seven.
The pair rattled through the top seven, including ousting both openers for ducks.
Ricky Tester 1-19 also struck before Jake Burton wrapped it up with his only over a double wicket maiden that included the scalp of top scorer Andy McIntyre (21).
Long Sutton took just 18.3 overs to reach the target of 86.
Despite the early loss Rajan Sangha (4) Adam Wright (35 not out) and John (40 not out) ensured Long Sutton had the game won before tea.
