Josh Newton praised a top team effort from Spalding Town as they secured 12 hard-fought points against defending Lincs ECB Premier League champions on Saturday.
The visitors made an imposing 276-9 batting first on a rain-hit afternoon at Spalding Grammar School, before Town made 230-7 in reply to seal a losing draw.
That represented a good day’s work for Spalding, who saw off the last ball at 8.31pm in near pitch black conditions.
Newton, who made 35 with the bat, said: “I think the result was a good one for us. When we got rid of Tim McIntosh a few wickets tumbled, but their other batsmen fired and they got a pretty big score.
“At one stage it looked like we might chase the target down, but we reassessed things towards the end and decided to play for points.
“The most pleasing thing about the weekend was the fact everyone chipped in, it was a good team performance.”
Sleaford’s impressive batting line-up fired at Spalding Grammar after winning the toss.
Henry Charlton (2-61) got rid of opener Louis Kimber for just 12, while Jamie Juckes (1-52) snared the prized wicket of New Zealand Test ace McIntosh for a relatively cheap 31.
However, Oliver Burford (73) stepped up to the plate with a fine half-century that included 11 fours to steer the visitors to 276-9.
Andy Hibberd (31), Samuel Gascoyne (28) and Rhys Collings (24) also chipped in with solid scorers, while Warren Nel (2-34), Thivanka Rajaratne (2-23) and Nuwan Jayasena (1-64) got the other Town wickets.
Rajaratne was typically explosive in Town’s reply, hammering two sixes and seven fours in his 61 before being run out by McIntosh.
Fellow top order batsmen Nel (36) and Newton (35) also scored well as Spalding looked on course for success at 141-1.
But wickets slowly began to tumble with Charlton going for a duck and stand-in skipper Tim Norris out for 16.
That left Town needing 81 from the last ten overs. Hopes of that faded when Jayasena departed for 12, but Ben Smith (31no) refused to accept defeat.
He started to run out of partners, though, with Luke Whitworth (4) also dismissed. With that in mind, Smith and Jack Barratt (4no) eased Spalding to a losing draw.
Next up for Town is a tough trip to third-placed Woodhall Spa on Saturday (noon).
They welcome back skipper Rob Ambrose, but key fast bowler Charlie Kearns remains absent.
Still, Newton reckons that he and his team-mates couldn’t go to Spa at a better time.
He added: “We’ve picked up plenty of points in recent weeks and confidence is high.
“We go into every game wanting a win and we’ll be targeting just that on Saturday.”
