Spalding Town 2nd continued their unbeaten run this South Lincs and Border League Division Two season with a crushing 107-run win over Grantham 3rd on Saturday.
After losing the toss at the Memorial Field, Spalding were put into bat and started slowly on a very damp wicket.
They managed to keep wickets in hand, though, as Harry Wilko (24) and Rob Noble (59) took the score to 81 without loss off 28 overs.
This set the game up for Spalding’s middle order of Steve Rushworth (23), Ansar Hussain (32) and Matt Gill (17) to accelerate the run rate, scoring six sixes between them to push Spalding’s score to 177-8 off their 45 overs. Grantham skipper Adrian Wing (5-23) was the pick of the bowlers.
Grantham’s reply was scuppered not only by some very tight bowling – Nohman Ahmad (0-14 off 12 overs) proved very difficult to score off – but also by some outstanding fielding from Spalding’s young star Josh Lawrence.
His quick gather and breaking of the stumps from 30 yards would have graced a county ground.
This, together with a superb diving catch to dismiss Grantham danger man Robinson, won him the man of the match award.
Grantham subsequently had no answer to Spalding’s all-round bowling attack and were bowled out for 71 as Hussain (3-6) and Jon Manton (3-3) cleaned up to make it six wins from as many league games.
Skipper Mike Kearns said: “This was another very good all-round performance, our discipline and fielding were particularly good aspects to take from this game.”
This Saturday sees Spalding travel to fellow unbeaten title contenders Frieston (1.30pm), but they’ll be missing a few key performers.
Kearns added: “Unfortunately we have several players away for the next game. However, I feel sure that the team selected will put up a bold effort in order to keep our unbeaten run going.”
