Despite suffering a heavy defeat, Spalding climbed a place in the Lincolnshire Board Premier League table.
Although they went down by 124 runs at Lindum, the three bonus points they picked up was two more than Grimsby Town achieved in a 247-run defeat at Scunthorpe Town and saw them climb above them in the standings.
Ollie Dring’s decision to field first backfired as home opener William Wright battered his way to 186 before being caught by Jon Manton off Harsh Bhandari. His 13-ball innings included a six and 21 fours.
Lindum closed their 50 overs on 305/2, with Walter Kinlock taking the only other wicket to fall.
In response, Spalding slipped to 51/5 before Bhandari (42) and Manton (13) combined again to add another 59.
The game looked over at 116/7 but a late hurrah from Nilantha Atapattu (36) pushed the final score on to 181 after 49 overs to collect three batting points.
Spalding Seconds also suffered a heavy defeat in Division Two of the South Lincs Border League, crashing by 142 runs at home to Orton Park Seconds.
Things looked good when the visitors’ top three were removed for a combined total of just six runs with two wickets for Josh White and one for Thomas Decamps.
However, there was a long wait for the next success, with Vidit Matta (113) and Abbas Qureshi (100) standing firm for the fourth-wicket as Orton Park went on to post 296/6.
Openers Phil Lewis (25) and Andrew Sorrell (34) made a solid start for Spalding but wickets fell regularly after that with only Jack Sawyer (33) making headway in the hosts’ 154 all out reply.
