Rob Ambrose lamented a bad day at the office for his Spalding Town side on Saturday as their winless start in the Lincs ECB Premier League stretched to three games.
A typical century from Warren Nel (103) steered Town to a solid-looking 205-7 at Spalding Grammar School, but visitors Market Rasen knocked that off with six wickets to spare – despite a fine spell of 4-45 from Charlie Kearns.
The defeat leaves Town, who picked up five bonus points, just four points off the bottom of the table.
Skipper Ambrose dubbed the defeat a “bad all-round display”, but felt his side should still have defended a total that he felt was 25 runs light.
“It wasn’t a good day for us, I’ll be honest,” said the experienced captain. “It was just an accumulation of things, really.
“I thought we were 25 runs light – but once we passed 200 I did feel we should have been able to defend the score.
“No disrespect intended, but I believe that we’re a stronger side than Rasen.
“But they knocked the runs off very well, pretty comfortably if I’m honest.
“We just played bad cricket all round. Warren did very well to get his century, but we just didn’t bat well around him.
“We’re also a fast bowler light with Henry Charlton missing, but that should be no excuse on the day.
“Maybe Rasen had more confidence than us coming into the game having already got that first win under their belt. Our lads look low on confidence already and that was probably the difference.”
Having won the toss, Spalding lost Tim Norris for a duck early on. But Nel and Josh Newton (46) enjoyed an impressive 92 run partnership to take the score to 98 before the latter was bowled by James Fussey.
The patient Nel remained, making a 161-ball 103 – which included 13 fours – before eventually being cleaned up by Will Bradford.
Spalding were pretty short on runs elsewhere, with only Ben Smith (28) and Nuwan Jayasena (15) making double figures.
Rasen never really looked in any trouble during their reply, despite Kearns’ heroics. He clean bowled Bradford (59) and Paul Martin (0), while also removing Charlie Scales (5) and Liam Scales (45).
But Matt Rutherford (42no) and Graeme Bell (31no) shared an unbeaten 62 partnership to get the visitors over the line in the 47th over.
Saturday’s results: Market Deeping 241-8 (Wheatley 85, Gillett 51), Grimsby 79; Bracebridge Heath 211-8 (Atri 82), Lindum 137; Skegness 181 (Young 66, Chanditha 51), Bourne 185-7 (Morgan 55) Grantham 148 (Bandara 6-49), Woodhall Spa 150-1; Spalding 205-7 (Nel 103), Market Rasen 206-4 (Bradford 59); Louth 182 (Morris 5-46), Sleaford 187-6 (McIntosh 98no, Shorthouse 64).
