Long Sutton continued their march up the South Lincs and Border Premier Division table with an emphatic nine-wicket win over Belton Park at the Paradise Field.
Belton were asked to bat first on a hard, bouncy track and it didn’t take long for that decision to pay off as paceman Barry Stanway (4-35) ripped through the top order.
Belton’s middle order put up a bit of a fight, but spin duo Rob Simpson (3-3) and Jake Burton (2-3) cleared up the tail to bowl the visitors out for 75.
Sutton made light work of the run chase as club stalwart Chris Booth rolled back the years, crashing nine boundaries on his way to 44 from just 46 balls.
He eventually fell trying to hit a six to win the game and it was left to fellow opener Jimmy Wright alongside skipper Phil Barnes to wrap up the full 20 points for Sutton.
Barnes said: “We were outstanding. Barry bowled with raw pace and it was great to see Chris Booth scoring so freely.
“Hopefully we can carry this momentum forward and cause an upset at Bourne on Saturday.”
Spalding 3rd bounced back from two heavy defeats to win at Boston 3rd – due in no small part to the club’s academy players.
Brandon Andrews opened the bowling and fellow 13-year-old Will Barnes took a smart catch early on.
Despite Town bowling well, Sean Barnett sped quickly to his 50 as Boston were 106/1 off 23 overs.
Barnett fell just nine short of his ton, sparking a magnificent fightback in the field.
Gilbert picked up four wickets in quick succession followed by two for skipper Jimmy Clarke. Boston collapsed to 185 all out in the 42nd over to give Town three extra overs in the run chase.
Sharpe and Clarke started off in watchful mood.
Sharpe went in the 15th over for a composed 22. But this bought to the wicket form batsman 15-year-old Josh Lawrence, who started off in dominating form dispatching two of his first four balls to the boundary.
With Boston unable to break the partnership, Lawrence went to his maiden senior 50 in 56 balls with a glorious cover drive, followed by Clarke’s own 50 off 107 balls in the next over.
Lawrence went for 59 and Clarke to a tired stroke caught at mid-off for 57.
Wickets fell at steady times but some calm batting from Green saw Town over the finishing line with 186-7.
Clarke said: “It was an honour to be at the other end to Josh as he got to his maiden 50. It shows the strength of our academy when we have six players in the team who are in the academy or have just left.”
