Performance of the week, if not the season, in the South Lincs Border League came in Saturday’s Division One derby between the second teams of Long Sutton and Spalding.
The hosts emerged victorious in stunning fashion after captain Aron John (192) and Rajan Singh (101) smashed their way to a 312-run opening partnership, both eventually falling victim to Josh White (2-37).
That enabled them to post a target of 342/2.
Spalding were always struggling in reply and only Josh Riley (34) passed 18 as they fell for 130 in the 41st over.
Steven Milnes (3-18) topped the bowling charts, ahead of Philip Barnes (2-10), Charlie Crisp (2-19) and Rob Simpson (2-24).
Not such good news for relegation-bound Sutton firsts in the Lincolnshire Board Premier League where they fell to an
eight-wicket defeat at Scunthorpe Town.
The visitors lost the toss and were asked to bat. Opener Calvin Bird was joint top scorer with 35, matched in the middle order by Davico Kruger with Paul Edgeller (29) and Daniel Oldfield (28) supporting his efforts to reach 222 off the last ball.
A second-wicket stand of 113 by Scunthorpe’s Ian Snowden (49) and Priyanshu Khanduri (122no) led them to 223/2 inside 32 overs.
Spalding are only one place above their neighbours after suffering an 84-run defeat at home to Grimsby Town.
Things looked promising when the visitors were reduced to 46/6 but Steven Crossley (123) rescued them and helped them to 257/8. Nilantha Atapattu (3-35) and Brandon Andrews (3-48) were the pick of the Spalding bowlers.
In a carbon copy of the first innings, Spalding slumped to 49/5 but this time there was no big hitter to save them, despite 43 from Harsh Bhandari, and they were dismissed for 173 after 39 overs.
Moulton Harrox confirmed a club-best second place finish in the South Lincs Border League Championship thanks to a five-run win against Boston.
The home team lost two of their top three for ducks but Jamie Juckes (25) and Blake Wolstenholme (25) led a revival to 59/2 before Matthew Barnett (61) and Flynn McMillan (60) took over with a stand of 124 for the fifth wicket.
An unbeaten seventh-wicket partnership of 36 between Matthew Rose (25no) and Lee Eyett (22no) enabled a decent total of 235/6.
Boston opener Ben Troops took up the challenge and hit 93 before being caught by Anish Suwarneraj off McMillan, whose 4-16 proved crucial as the visitors were bowled out just six runs short of victory.
Seven bowlers were used by Moulton on their way to a seven-wicket win at CSKA Emneth in Division Four East of the Rutland Sunday League.
Mohammad Alam (3-26) was the pick, although four others picked up wickets, including Paul Bullock
(2-37), who removed both the Norfolk side’s top scorers.
CSKA were sent back to the pavilion with 154 to their name.
Wolstenholme (39) and Cameron Fox (21) got Moulton off to a steady start and they were 59/1 when the pair were parted.
Things were decided by McMillan (52no) and Ruari Drumm (33no) with an unbroken stand of 77 for the fourth wicket.
McMillan hit a six to bring up his half-century and secure the winning runs at 160/3.