Captain Rob Ambrose offered no excuses after seeing his table-topping Spalding Town side upset at basement boys Belton Park on Saturday.
Town went into the game on a run of nine wins (not including washouts) on the spin, but fell 30 runs shy of making it ten in the shock South Lincs and Border League Premier Division result of the weekend.
The result sees Spalding’s lead at the top cut to eight points, but they do have second-placed Sleaford 2nd – who have a game in hand – left to play.
Having been inserted into bat, Belton scored an impressive 202-7 as Tyronne Premisiri (50) and Luke Pollard (45) both scored well in the middle order after Town had reduced them to 87-5.
All looked to be going to plan for Spalding when Hafiz Majeed (2-31) got rid of Jake Pollard first up.
Jimmy Hook (1-13) and Dan Milgate (2-40) then removed Mick Coulson (14) and Harry Brewin (2) respectively to leave Belton toiling on 48-4.
That brought Tyronne Premasiri and Jonny Law to the crease. The pair took Belton to 87 before Milgate bowled the latter for 25.
But if Town thought that was the key breakthrough, they were wrong. Premasiri (50) and Luke Pollard (45) then put on 81 for the sixth wicket to take Belton to 168-6.
Josh Lawrence (1-50) eventually got rid of Premasiri and Roy Tilley (1-27) did for Luke Pollard, but Rohan Perera (20) and Gav Clarke (18) added 36 for the last wicket to leave Town up against it chasing 208 to win.
In reply, Town’s Warren Nel and Majeed looked like building a big partnership before Perera (1-25) had Nel caught for 12.
And, when Hook (2) was removed by Jonny Law (3-36), 58-2 soon became 72-4 with Tim Norris (0) run out and David Thomas (9) dismissed by Law.
There was to be no back-to-back heroics from Majeed, who hit 158 last week, as Luke Pollard (2-39) took his scalp for 46.
Milgate (12) and Harry Wilkinson-Roberts (2) followed him back to the pavilion, leaving Town in dire straits at 100-7. Skipper Rob Ambrose led a spirited fightback with his unbeaten 55, sharing a 59-run partnership with Lawrence (11).
But time wasn’t on Spalding’s side and they could only reach 177-9 at the close as they suffered a potentially damaging defeat.
Ambrose said: “It was a funny game. We went there and saw an uncovered pitch that was a bit on the wet side, so we thought putting them in first was the right call.
“When we had them 40-odd for five it was all going to plan and we’d have fancied bowling them out for 120.
“But credit to them, they put together a good partnership and got 200.
“The pitch then dried up a bit and it became hard to score. The openers nudged it around for a bit, but when they got out we found ourselves well behind the rate.
“No disrespect to the younger lads, but we were perhaps missing one too many of the senior players.
“But we’ll not make excuses, Belton deserved it.”
Next up for Town is a home date against Grantham 2nd at Spalding Grammar School on Saturday (1.30pm).
