With four games to go in the Lincolnshire Board Premier League season, it looks like a three-way battle to avoid the drop.
Nettleham are 21 points adrift and appear doomed but just two points separate Grimsby Town, Market Deeping and Spalding in the scrap to avoid the second relegation berth.
Spalding dropped into joint second-bottom spot with a six-wicket defeat at Grantham after a middle order collapse. All looked comfortable after losing the toss and being put into bat and reaching 139/3.
Jaie Coles (26) and Divyeash Vaseeharan (23) provided the foundation for captain Ollie Dring to add 41 but when he went, the wickets tumbled as Aqib Afzaal (5-21 from five overs) took centre stage.
It left Spalding all out for 171 and with a battle on their hands.
They made early progress with Barnaby Dring (2-33) and Walter Kinlock (2-40) picking up two wickets each to reduce the hosts to 96/4 but that was as good as it got. Quendeel Haider (62no) and Madhava Yvas (36no) were inseparable and compiled a 76-run stand to see their team to victory in the 40th over.
It was also a bad day for Spalding Seconds in Division Two of the South Lincs Border League, where they collapsed to a nine-wicket defeat at home to Castor & Ailsworth.
The hosts mustered just 34 runs and their defeat was confirmed in just 26 balls, despite Macey Andrews picking up a wicket thanks to Andrew Hart’s catch.
Captain Thomas Decamps top-scored for ten-man Spalding with eight runs, although their efforts were boosted by 12 extras.
