Spalding Town suffered final over heartbreak on Saturday as Sleaford edged a close Lincs ECB Premier League contest by just five runs.
Town looked set to break their duck for the season after Hafiz Majeed (3-44), Jon Miles (2-33) and Luke Hollingworth (2-40) helped knock visitors Sleaford over for 190 at Spalding Grammar School.
Hollingworth (49) and Warren Nel (31) then top scored as Spalding reached 176-6 before losing their final four wickets for just nine runs – including last man out Andrew Dockerill with three balls left – leaving them all out for 185.
Promoted Town, who had lost their opening two games in the division, were without skipper Rob Ambrose for Saturday’s clash.
His stand-in Josh Newton won the toss and elected to field – a decision he would have been happy with when Miles got rid of opener Charlie Roberts for just four.
That strong start continued, with Sleaford reduced to 103-6 despite decent starts from Simon Godby (27), Matt Mountain (30) and Shaun Morris (37).
However, just like the previous week, a lower-order cameo undid much of Spalding’s good work.
Number eight Cameron Hall cracked an unbeaten 47 from just 42 balls, including two fours and two sixes, to get his side to a respectable 190 in the 49th over.
Town lost wickets at regular intervals in their reply, including opener Faisal Javed (7) early on.
Nel and Majeed (25) put on 41 for the second wicket, but both went in the space of four runs to leave Town on 65-3.
Although they also lost Ben Smith (7) and Newton (11), Hollingworth and Miles (18) put on 55 for the sixth wicket to seemingly put Spalding in command.
However, Hollingworth then watched on as Miles and Matt Gill (14) departed, before losing his wicket one shy of 50 to leave Town nine runs short of the win with two wickets left.
They took it to the last over, but Hall – the star with the bat for Sleaford –completed a fine all-round display by bowling Dockerill in the final over to finish with figures of 3-31.
Spalding, who took eight match points from the clash, are now in the bottom two and visit Lindum this Saturday (noon).
