Long Sutton slipped into the South Lincs and Border League Premier Division drop zone after an eight-wicket defeat at relegation rivals Woodhall Spa 2nd on Saturday.
Sutton were dismissed for 145 by Woodhall who leapfrog the Paradise Field outfit and move out of the bottom two relegation places.
The visitors had elected to bat first on Saturday after winning the toss, but lost an early wicket when Phil Barnes was trapped lbw by Sam Cherry.
This brought Daniel Oldfield to the crease to join Chris Booth and they started to build the innings until the former was caught by Cherry off Matthew Sargeant for 14.
Sargeant and Peter Jackson then proceeded to wreak havoc on the Sutton batting line-up with only three other players joining Oldfield in double figures.
Opener Booth top-scored with 62 until he was caught by Nathan Carter off the bowling of Sargeant.
Barry Stanway struck 31 runs until he was bowled by Jackson while Luke Barnes, who came in at number five, was 12 not out after running out of batting partners.
Four players – Aaron John, Rav Sangha, Rob Simpson and Steven Milnes – failed to trouble the scorers as Sargeant finished with 5-45 and Jackson returned 3-34.
Sutton made an inspired start in defending their total as Cherry was trapped lbw by Oldfield for six and George Lindsey bowled by Stanway for four.
However, Carter (56no) and Rob Bee (59no) shared an unbroken partnership to steer Spa to a crucial victory.
Sutton entertain Stamford this Saturday needing a victory to overturn an eight-point deficit on their visitors who currently occupy the place above them in the league standings.
Long Sutton 2nds didn’t fare much better on Saturday after they suffered a 115-run defeat at Boston 3rds.
They were bowled out for just 91 in pursuit of Boston’s 206-9 from their allotted 45 overs.
Andrew Wright (28) and Calvin Bird (26) scored more than half of their total between them.
The two sides meet again on Saturday at Boston.
