A virtuoso display from Woodhall Spa’s Ross Dixon handed Spalding Town a second Lincs ECB Premier Division defeat on the spin on Saturday.
Dixon, coming in at number eight with the score on 95-6, blasted an unbeaten 102 from just 73 deliveries to power hosts Spa to 257-9 from their 50 overs at Jubilee Park.
The all-rounder then snared figures of 5-61 – including the big scalps of Faisal Javed (58) and Hafiz Majeed (79) – to help bowl Town out for 223 in 46.2 overs.
Hosts Spa elected to bat first after winning the toss. But, despite seeing opener Jack Timby make 48, they stuttered to 95-6 with Pradeep Chanditha (3), Henry Wilson (2), Prasanna Jayawardene (7), Matthew Law (7) and Tom Caswell (1) all out cheaply.
The wickets were shared between Jonathan Miles (1-66), Majeed (2-62), Luke Hollingworth (2-12) and Dan Millgate (2-66), but all of Town’s good work was undone by Dixon’s blitz.
He plundered 13 fours and a six in his masterful ton, which fired Spa to a big total.
Warren Nel (1-30) did get rid of Chris Anderson (19), but the damage was already done.
Spalding’s reply was the reverse of Spa’s effort, with the top trio getting them off to a stellar star.
Nel (30) was first to go with the score on 61, but Javed – who hit seven fours in his 95-ball 58 – and Majeed (ten fours) put on 101 before the latter was stumped by Timby off Dixon.
Things went south for Town pretty quickly from there, with Josh Newton (0), Ben Smith (1) and Hollingworth (1) all falling to Dixon.
Majeed’s 88-ball innings was they ended by that man Dixon with the score on 196-6. Miles (21) did offer some resistance, but Spa soon wrapped up the tail to claim maximum points.
Town did manage eight points from the clash, but skipper Rob Ambrose will be hoping for better at home to Sleaford this Saturday (noon).
- Spalding Town suffered two defeats in the Winkworth Cup on Monday.
The Winkworth Cup is a competition for Lincs Premier Division clubs – with the outright winner moving into the draw for the National Twenty/20 (T20) competition.
Bourne (192-6) beat Town (109-5) by 83 runs in the first T20 clash at the Abbey Lawn, with Peter Morgan (72 in just 36 balls) and Carl Wilson (52) on-song for the hosts, who batted first.
Jonah Gill (3-28) and Andrew Dockerill (2-27) were the pick of the Spalding bowlers.
In reply, Nel (36) and Smith (26) were the top Town performers, but the run rate was too steep.
Spalding (106) also lost by 41 runs against Market Deeping (147-6), with seamer Vamshi Parvathaneni taking a hat-trick against them.
Bourne went on to win the group as they continued their dominance in local T20 cricket.
- Jamie Juckes took 5-35 to steer Spalding Town 2nd to a six-wicket win over rivals Boston 2nd in South Lincs and Border League Premier Division on Saturday.
Batting first at the Memorial Field, Boston were all out for 150 in 37.1 overs – thanks largely to a 60 from Mahir Yousuff.
Spalding did well with the ball, with Josh Lawrence (3-50), Julian Wilson (1-36) and Steve Norris (1-10) backing up Juckes’ super show.
It was a team effort with the bat, too, as Town made 154-4 to reach their target inside 38 overs.
Simon Juckes (29 not out), Matt Gill (27 not out) and Jack Barratt (25) were the chief contributors.
Town have picked up 39 points out of a possible 40 after winning both of their opening two games and visit Sleaford 2nd on Saturday (1pm).
