There were huge celebrations for Spalding Town and Moulton Harrox as they stayed up and won their divisions respectively.
Spalding Town went into the final round of fixtures in the bottom two of the Lincolnshire Premier Division having to beat fifth-placed Burghley Park while hoping either Grimsby Town or Market Deeping lost.
Spalding skipper Ollie Dring lost the toss but after Burghley elected to bat, his bowlers came to the fore.
Barnaby Dring was in fine form with the ball, picking up the wickets of all the top four, leaving the hosts 1-2, 16-3 and then 57-4.
Peter Hewat (56), Ahsan Azhar (16) and Sam Potter (34) ensured some stability for the hosts in the middle order, but after Burghley reached 178-6, quick wickets left them 198 all out in the 40th over.
Barnaby Dring finished with 4-32, Matthew Key 2-39, in his final game, overseas player Walter Kinclock claimed 2-42, Ollie Dring 1-36 and Divyeah Vaseeharan 1-11.
All of Spalding’s batsmen played a part in what proved to be a comfortable enough chase in the end.
Jon Manton (15) and Vaseeharan put on 54 for the first wicket, the latter hitting 37 in 29 balls.
When he was the second wicket to fall on 64, Jamie Coles came in alongside Barnaby Dring (24) and the pair batted sensibly in a partnership of 82 that broke the back of the chase.
Coles was joined by Ollie Dring hitting 38 from 36 balls to see their side home to the vital seven-wicket win.
While Grimsby Town’s game at Lindum was abandoned ensuring they had enough points to stay up, Market Deeping were looking to chase down Woodhall Spa’s 271-8 to stay ahead of Spalding in the table.
That never looked likely though as they were bowled out for 241, only securing eight points as Spalding leapt above them in the table to ensure top flight cricket for another year.
They will be joined in the division by Moulton Harrox who went one better than last year to list the South Lincs and Border League title.
While previous leaders Newborough had their game rained off, Moulton took full advantage by thrashing Woodhall Spa 2nd XI.
Jamie Juckes (89), Flynn McMillan (68) and Matthew Rose (35) all enjoyed themselves with the bat after the latter won the toss and elected to bat.
The visitors posted 229/5 from their 45 overs.
It was a target Woodhall got nowhere near as Moulton bowled them out for 83 in just 18.3 overs.
Paul Edgeller (3-17), Harry Lovell (3-20), Uddyan Hansana (2-28) and Curtis Todd (1-10) all ensured the promotion party could start early.
The celebratory mood did not carry over to Long Sutton who were relegated by just a single point on Saturday.
They faced bottom of the table Bourne 2nd XI at Paradise Field who started the match 13 points behind and needing to win big while hoping Woodhall Spa 2nd XI didn’t win.
As Woodhall’s fate was being sealed by Moulton, Sutton slumped to 124 all out in the 32nd over.
Rajan Singh (32), Dominic Clay (20) and Tim Norris’ counter attack of 37 off 23 balls were the only batsmen to score more than six.
For Bourne, Will Gardner’s 5-28 went a long way to ensure they stayed up.
Josh Baker (2-24) ousted the openers and Charith Harshana (1-22) provided Sutton some hope but Gardner (39 not out) anchored as Courtney Kruger hit 31 off 28 balls to seal a seven wicket, maximum points Bourne win that saw them leapfrog off the bottom and relegated the home side.
